Former Nashville Predators and current Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman was suspended 10 games for roughing Ottawa Senators forward Tim Stutzle, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced Monday night.
Hartman, 30, will have 48 hours to appeal the NHL’s suspension. The former Predators forward will first have to go through NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, then an independent arbitrator.
The incident involving Hartman and Stutzle took place in Minnesota’s 6-0 loss to Ottawa on Feb. 1, where Hartman dove on top of Stutzle following a defensive zone faceoff in the second period. Hartman was assessed a two-minute roughing penalty and a two-minute embellishment penalty, while Stutzle received a two-minute slashing penalty.
Hartman later received a match penalty at the end of the second period.
Hartman played 85 games for the Predators across the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, recording 13 goals, 13 assists, and 26 points. The 30-year-old had also received a one-game suspension in the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs for delivering an illegal check to the head against Carl Soderberg.
The Predators initially paid a first-round pick as part of the package to acquire Hartman from Chicago and later offloaded him to Philadelphia in the trade that brought Wayne Simmonds to Nashville for the latter part of his career.
This is the NHL’s first double-digit game suspension since Tom Wilson received 20 games in 2018; Hartman had been suspended on four prior occasions, including as recently as April 1 for throwing his stick.
