Gary Bettman Upholds Dennis Wideman’s Suspension

In news that shouldn’t be overly surprising or shocking, the National Hockey League has announced that commissioner Gary Bettman has upheld the 20-game suspension to Calgary Flames defenseman Dennis Wideman for his contact with linesman Don Henderson on January 27.

Wideman was originally suspended indefinitely by the league’s Department of Hockey Operations on January 28, pending a hearing, and suspended 20 games after a hearing conducted by the league’s head of Hockey Operations, Colin Campbell.

Since the suspension is still longer than the six-game threshold laid out in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Wideman is able (and expected to) appeal the suspension to James Oldham, the neutral dispute arbitrator.

Wideman has already served seven games of his suspension, the reason for which is hedged in the league’s interpretation and imposition of Section 40 of the NHL Rulebook as pertains to Abuse of Officials. Tonight’s contest against the Minnesota Wild will be the eighth game Wideman has missed during his suspension.

That’s not a good look for Wideman.

Presuming Wideman and the NHLPA elect for the final round of appeals, likely there wouldn’t be a hearing convened by the neutral arbitrator until next week and based on the length of time that this appeal took, it’d be a tight timeline to get everything squared away prior to the trade deadline on February 29.

We’ll have more on this story as it develops, including (hopefully) digging into the specifics of Bettman’s 23-page report.