Ryan Reaves has been suspended five games for his illegal check to the head on Darnell Nurse from Saturday night’s Maple Leafs-Oilers game. The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced their ruling just after 4 pm on Sunday.
Reaves was not offered an in-person hearing so five games was the maximum he could be suspended for the hit.
Toronto’s Ryan Reaves has been suspended for five games for an illegal check to the head against Edmonton’s Darnell Nurse. https://t.co/GyVuA2TLmG
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) November 17, 2024
In a video explainer, Player Safety says:
Reaves closes in on Nurse as he rounds the net and delivers a high, hard check that cuts across the front of Nurse’s body, missing his core and picking his head, making it the main point of contact on a hit where such head contact was avoidable. This is an illegal check to the head. It is important to note that both elements of the illegal check to the head rule are satisfied on this play.
First, the head is clearly the main point of contact as Reaves’s shoulder makes direct and forceful contact with Nurse’s head and it is the head that absorbs the vast majority of the force. Second, the head contact on this check is avoidable. Reaves mistimes this play, choosing an angle of approach that cuts across the front of Nurse, missing his core and making his head the main point of contact.
The narrator also notes that Nurse does not make any sudden movements to change the position of his head before the hit. Nurse’s injury and Reaves’s previous suspension and fine history were also considered.
This is the fifth and longest suspension of Reaves’s 15-year NHL career. His previous longest suspension was his first, in 2016, while playing for the St. Louis Blues. He was suspended for three games after boarding Matt Tennyson of the San Jose Sharks.
Reaves’s suspension is the NHL’s third of the 2024-25 regular season and now the longest, surpassing Tanner Jeannot’s three-game suspension for an illegal check to the head on Brock Boeser.
Here’s the press release from the NHL:
Reaves of Maple Leafs suspended 5 games for illegal check to head
Forward received match penalty for hit on Oilers defenseman Nurse on Saturday
NEW YORK — Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ryan Reaves has been suspended for five games, without pay, for an illegal check to the head of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse during NHL Game No. 274 in Toronto on Saturday, Nov. 16, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.
The incident occurred at 2:38 of the second period. Reaves was assessed a match penalty.
Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and, based on his average annual salary, Reaves will forfeit $35,156.25. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
