Photo: X-Plane
The National Hockey League announced on Wednesday that it has fined the Toronto Maple Leafs’ organization $100,000 for the team’s travel to St. Louis on Dec. 26, 2022. This team activity was in violation of Article 16.5(b) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association.
The CBA states that teams may not travel during the three-day holiday break, which included Monday:
Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe was also fined $25,000 for “demeaning conduct” directed at officials in the team’s 5-4 overtime win over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.
The fine money will go to the NHL Foundation.
Here’s the relevant CBA section the #leafs violated. It sounds like the players wanted to follow a typical schedule and travel in the night before the game.
Something similar happened with the #flyers on Dec. 26, 2014 and they were also fined $100,000 by the NHL. pic.twitter.com/C3M4PBJWam
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) December 28, 2022
By Harrison Brown
Leafs DID have to travel a decent distance for their day-travel game. They probably thought it was worth the fine?
Probably. I am unhappy with NHL’s scheduling this season on a number of fronts already. This just adds to it. But, if GMs and owners don’t squawk, nothing’s going to change.
It was the (NHLPA) players AND the league that agreed on CBA (travel ban during holiday break) so I don’t know how much the league is to blame here.
Otherwise, yes, pretty sure they just pull team names from a top hat to plan schedule.
The tweet about the Leafs was “It sounds like the players wanted to follow a typical schedule and travel in the night before the game.” So there is the NHLPA part. But the NHL does the scheduling. They could schedule to minimize the trip length for first day back or, for those they can’t, give them a travel day after the agreed upon break. So yes, I blame the league.
Why blame the league when all other teams followed the rule except toronto? I say strip the win and 2 points as a fine means nothing and like Jon said probably worth it to toronto, who are arrogant anyway and just as bad as montreal!!
Seems to me “Team PA Rep” could’ve spoke up & reminded team of rules! Silence is golden I guess!
Guess the team president a former player who used to fight for former PA members when he played,isn’t willing to follow same rules as executive!!
A fine……thats nothing; take away the win for doing something wrong and that means something! A fine only encourages more bad behavior but having them lose the win and lose the 2 points hurts more!!
Great point hockeydruid. I love the way you thought that through.
We were talking bout that as well, how much Toronto pays per goal. 100k is worth/less to them for an advantage in a game.
Well, that isn’t in the CBA. Kinda like fining someone for a high stick or penalty rather than suspending. First time offense. Big deal.
Supposedly the story that’s come out is they were @ airport & plain basically left a couple minutes before midnight & that’s why they got fined had they waited 5 minutes….,no fine!!