The NHL’s department of player safety announced that Minnesota Wild forward was being fined for high-sticking Jets forward Cole Perfetti on December 31st.
The incident, which didn’t draw a penalty on the play in question, will cost Hartman $4,426.08, which is the maximum allowable amount under the current CBA. The announcement marks the 2nd major infraction of the year for the 29 year old after previously being suspended 2 games for tripping Alex DeBrincat earlier this season.
Speaking to members of the press on Tuesday, Perfetti indicated that Hartman told him that the high stick was in retaliation for an earlier incident involving Jets defenseman Brendon Dillon and Kirill Kaprizov the night before.
“He said it in kind of a respectful way. No disrespect, nothing against you, it had to happen for what happened to Kaprizov there,” said Perfetti. “”Kind of a weird thing to come out and admit it. He blatantly said it was for what happened, even though I didn’t even do anything in the play. I had nothing to do with it.”
“We caught it all, we caught the whole convo…I was mic’d up, so I don’t know if he realized that or not, I mean they’re supposed to get notified but to come out and blatantly say it to the mic, it worked out in our favour.”
Across 30 games this year Hartman has recorded 17pts (11G, 6A). The Wild are next in action Tuesday vs. the Calgary Flames.
Photo: Michael Barera. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.