{"id":509233,"date":"2026-03-18T08:01:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T08:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/509233\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T08:01:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T08:01:39","slug":"nhls-players-safety-chief-addresses-backlash-over-auston-matthews-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/509233\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL’s Players Safety Chief Addresses Backlash Over Auston Matthews Incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anaheim Ducks<\/a> captain Radko Gudas entered the spotlight last week after his knee-on-knee hit on Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> captain Auston Matthews.<\/p>\n

A little over 24 hours after the hit, the NHL<\/a>‘s Department of Player Safety handed Gudas a five-game suspension<\/a> following a phone hearing, the maximum allowed under that format.<\/p>\n

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Shortly after, on Saturday morning, the Maple Leafs announced<\/a> that Matthews had suffered a Grade 3 MCL tear and would miss the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

The decision to suspend Gudas for just five games quickly drew criticism from players<\/a>, coaches<\/a>, general managers<\/a> and agents<\/a> around the NHL.<\/p>\n

\"Anaheim<\/p>\n

Anaheim Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas (7) looks at injured Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews after delivering a knee-on-knee hit on March 12.John E&period; Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(John E&period; Sokolowski-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

George Parros, head of the Department of Player Safety, addressed<\/a> the backlash at the NHL\u2019s general manager meetings on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel confident in this decision,\u201d Parros said. \u201cWe came to it for good reason. When we evaluate these plays, we look at the play, not the players. And then we look at \u2014 if we determine that play was worthy of supplemental discipline \u2014 we then look at the history of the players involved and if there\u2019s an injury or not. This is how we come to make all of our decisions. We did this and made this decision under those circumstances, felt that this was the appropriate response, and so I stand by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Parros confirmed the department was aware of an injury when determining the length of Gudas’ suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe assumption was that there was an injury on this play,\u201d Parros said. \u201cHaving that information and feeling that way about this, knowing that there\u2019s likely an injury, I still decided to have just a phone hearing for that. It wasn\u2019t like I decided to have a phone hearing, found out there was an injury, and then wished I had an in-person instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Oilers captain Connor McDavid was the highest-profile player to speak on the decision<\/a>, suggesting the process may need review. Parros, however, defended it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a process in place that we feel confident in,\u201d Parros said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been doing it for a long time. We sweat over these decisions and pore over these decisions every night, all season long. We have a process in place that\u2019s consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gudas will be eligible to return to the Ducks’ lineup on March 24, while Matthews will finish his 10th NHL season on the shelf with 53 points in 60 games.<\/p>\n

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Related: Brady Tkachuk Shares Support for Auston Matthews After Season-Ending Injury<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Auston Matthews Injury Raises Questions About Maple Leafs\u2019 Future<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Mar 17, 2026, where it first appeared in the NHL<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anaheim Ducks captain Radko Gudas entered the spotlight last week after his knee-on-knee hit on Toronto Maple Leafs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[2210,233,5292,532,155,53288,1739,62,30846,5,4,24,9464,31],"class_list":["post-509233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheimducks","tag-auston-matthews","tag-connor-mcdavid","tag-department-of-player-safety","tag-ducks","tag-florida","tag-george-parros","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-oilers","tag-radko-gudas","tag-toronto-maple-leafs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116249132415786265","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}