Toronto Maple Leafs: The NHL’s Big Problem

Toronto Maple Leafs fans are commonly angry online, usually justifiably.

But this isn’t just a problem with the Toronto Maple Leafs – fans of al teams, and the media, and even some players are raising concerns about the NHL’s Player Safety Department.

There has been a lot of questionable decisions recently that have shaken both the fans and players’ beliefs that the NHL is fair and just.

The NHL has been cast in a very dark shadow based on the operations run by the head of the Department of Player Safety, Geroge Parros.

In 2011 the NHL created a new department. Its purpose was to monitor the play of every game and make decisions on who and what deserved supplemental discipline. Running this new wing in the NHL would be former players in the league.

The first to head the Department of Player Safety has gone on to bigger and better things. He’s now the President and Alternate Governor for the Maple Leafs, Brendan Shanahan. He lasted three years in the position before turning it over to another retired player, Stephane Quintal.

Quintal was in the role as long as his predecessor but he transitioned into becoming the Senior Vice President of Player Safety for the NHL.

This set things up for a change in September of 2017.

That’s when a decision was made to name Parros, a former enforcer in the league, the new department head. In his playing career, he earned a total of 1092 penalty minutes. Over 77-percent of those minutes came from fighting majors. Parros had 169 bouts.

The optics of having an ex-fighter running the NHL’s safety dept. are terrible, but that’s not the only problem.   Under Parros, the NHL’s ability to make the game safer through enforcement of the rules has completely deteriorated.

There’s no consistency, there’s questions of bias, and recently, we saw a player cross-check another player in the throat with barely any consequences, while another player got a slap on the wrist for kicking someone with skates on.

Parros’s History of Questionable Decisions

It didn’t take long for Parros to be questioned for his decision making when he began working for the league.

In January 2018, he suspended Andrew Cogliano with the Anaheim Ducks for two games, which was a big deal at the time because it ended his 830-game iron-man streak. Cogliano and the Ducks were furious when a few days later Los Angeles Kings forward Dustin Brown was handed just a $10,000 fine for cross-checking Pittsburgh Penguin defenseman Justin Schultz.

In May of 2018 many were left scratching their heads after Boston Bruins forward and serial spit swapper Brad Marchand avoided any additional discipline when he licked the face of Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ryan Callahan. Parros and the NHL didn’t appear to take Marchand’s history of the unsanitary into account. He wasn’t fined or suspended.

Instead, he was just given a warning. Colin Campbell, who was the league’s Executive Vice-President and Director of Hockey Operations, called Marchand and his general manager Don Sweeney to let them know that the behaviour was unacceptable. Marchand was off the hook but told that his next incident would warrant supplemental discipline.

This season, Parros suspended Maple Leafs winger Alexander Kerfoot two games for boarding Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson. On its own, one could argue that Johnson was thrown violently into the boards making the punishment fitting. However, when comparing the incident to a similar one where a member of the Leafs was the victim of a dangerous hit, infuriated fans.

Parros was once again questioned and rightfully so when he and his department ignored a very comparable hit. In the same fashion that Kerfoot delivered his hit, Buffalo Sabres winger Kyle Okposo drilled Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman, Travis Dermott. Both hits landed on their opponents back when they weren’t looking, only this time, Parros chose not to punish Okposo.

The NHL has been sending mixed messages with the suspensions and fines they’ve been levying.

The Bruins Zdeno Chara was only fined for attempting to crush Montreal Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher’s windpipe. Chara was forced to pay $5,000 for the incident. In contrast, Gallagher’s coach, Claude Julien, was fined $10,000 for calling out the referees in a game less than a week later.

Inconsistency has been a serious problem for the NHL and Parros. Players don’t know what will or won’t lead to supplemental discipline. It’s not only been frustrating for fans but for the players as well. This came to light when Parros summoned San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane for a hearing.

Parros decided to suspend Kane for three games as a result of the elbow he delivered to Winnipeg Jets defenseman Neal Pionk. This didn’t sit well with the San Jose player who took to Twitter to criticize Parros. He first referenced the leniency granted to Chara and followed that up by posting a statement on his account.

“The fact the NHL Department of Player Safety headed by George Parros continue to pick and choose, who and what they suspend is ridiculous! There have been countless incidents of the same nature through this season and past seasons that have gone unsuspended or fined. No one person can tell you what is or isn’t a suspension in today’s game, it’s become a complete guess. There is a major lack of consistency with NHL Department of Player Safety. A completely FLAWED system in so many ways. From the suspensions to appeal rights, it’s baffling to me how we as players agreed to this. You can’t continue to give some players a pass and throw the book at others. There has to be an outside third party making these decisions to remove the bias that transpires in this department headed by George Parros. None of it makes any sense.”

Kane had reason to be upset, especially after seeing Chara’s wallet lightened by $5,000 while he had to forfeit $112,900 that went to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund as part of his suspension.

Conflict of Interest?

Last week, Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars was ejected for his high impact hit that threw Arizona Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson into the board. It was a dangerous blow delivered with the first point of contact being Ekman-Larsson’s back.

Because Benn was penalized with a game misconduct on the play, many expected him to be handed a suspension. Once again, inconsistency reared its ugly head as Benn has appeared to have avoided any further discipline.

The lack of fine or suspension for Benn doesn’t make sense. At least it didn’t until fans pointed out Parros might have good reason to let the left-winger off the hook. Two years ago, Violent Gentlemen posted an image of Benn. On it, he is praised as a “pure legend”.

Jamie Benn, pure legend. Thanks @shatteredlenstx !! #vghc #violentgentlemen

Posted by Violent Gentlemen on Wednesday, July 11, 2018

It’s not a coincidence that Parros’s company posted the photo of the player wearing one of their hats across its social media platforms. However, it may be a coincidence that Benn avoided discipline after appearing to model for the brand.

The problem is that the optics are terrible. Even if Parros didn’t consider his connection with Benn at all, there’s still a conflict of interest.

‘Conflict of interest’ really is the key term here. There are too many potential biases in Parros’s background to allow onlookers to believe that he’s always impartial. As previously noted, in his playing days, Parros was a fighter. Certainly, there could be lingering resentment from that time.

Evidence of this are the rivalries Parros developed on the ice. He clearly held grudges as he often fought the same players. While this was his and his fellow combatants’ role, his top three rivals slugged it out many times. He squared up with Darcy Hordichuk 11 times, Jody Shelley eight times, and Colton Orr seven times. If he could hold a grudge then, perhaps he still does.

It would be hard for Parros to remain impartial in his current role when judging the actions of these three players. Luckily they’ve all retired along with nearly all of his other combatant opponents.

The problem, however, isn’t with the individual players, but the teams. 17 of Parros’s fights took place with members of the Sharks. This was not just the most scraps he had against an organization, but nearly 59% more than the next closest team, the St. Louis Blues. He fought with their players ten times. That adds a new layer to Sharks left-winger, Kane’s suspension.

Once again, It’s likely just a coincidence with poor optics but it doesn’t make sense why the NHL allows for the possibility for criticism. Things would be a lot simpler for them if the head of the Department of Player Safety wasn’t a former player.

Parros and the NHL should be looking at ways to improve this department. In the meantime, they need to provide a statement on their reasoning not to suspend Benn. It would go a long way to help restore some trust in Parros. Although, at this point, any attempt to improve his image may be futile.

The league would be best served to take Kane’s suggestion and contract a third party to make all disciplinary decisions. That consideration should be discussed at the upcoming GM meetings.

The onus is now on the NHL to calm their fans and players alike. There’s no way to know what will happen with Parros in the future but it would behoove the NHL to take some kind of action very soon.