The National Hockey League has existed in some form or another for well over a century. It was officially founded in 1917, but its predecessor (the National Hockey Association) was founded in 1909, and unofficial smaller leagues existed for decades before that. The Stanley Cup, awarded annually to the team that wins the playoffs, was first commissioned in 1892 by Lord Frederick Stanley, the governor-general at the time, making it the oldest annual sports trophy in North America. Given the long life of the NHL, it’s understandable that sometimes the analysts, fans, and league make mistakes when it comes to historical claims. But that’s where r/badhistory comes in. Several weeks ago, current Boston Bruins player Brad Marchand was suspended for the 8th time, which is pretty remarkable (most players will go their entire careers without a suspension, and having 3 suspensions is incredibly rare and definitely means you have developed a somewhat negative reputation and/or derisive nickname, such as Marchand’s moniker of “rat”). But what’s more remarkable is the number of people in articles, posts, and even an official graphic on the most recent Colorado vs Boston game saying that Marchand is now the most suspended player in history, because, well, he isn’t.

Let’s pause here for some quick background info. Like I said, suspensions are relatively rare. So far this season, there have been 24 suspensions in a league with around 736 active players. To avoid overcomplicating things, I’m including only the 23-man active roster multiplied by the 32 teams. Teams can have up to 50 players under contract and often call up or send players down to affiliate leagues, such as the American Hockey League, meaning a little over 1000 players can expect to play at the NHL level in a season. Whichever way you slice it, only a small fraction of players have been suspended this season, which is more than half over. Most of the time, an infraction of the rules results in a powerplay (the player gets to sit in the penalty box, fondly called the “sin bin”, and his team plays shorthanded 5v4 for two minutes or until the team on the powerplay scores, whichever comes first). This covers the vast, vast majority of rule infractions in the NHL. If the infraction was serious, such as a check to the head, the play will be reviewed by the NHL and supplementary discipline may be handed out. This is usually a fine. In instances where the infraction was so serious that a fine will not cover it, players are suspended, with most suspensions being 1-3 games. Players who are suspended cannot play or be paid for the games they miss, so a suspension is sort of an extra large fine. The NHL also takes previous offenses into consideration, if they occurred within the last 18 months, which can result in a more significant suspension. Back to Marchand.

Marchand was suspended on February 9th, 2022, for 6 games (the longest suspension in the league this season for a play made on the ice, and the longest of Marchand’s suspensions). The length of the suspension was doubtless increased by his status as a repeat offender, since he had been suspended 7 times since his start in 2009, and most recently was suspended in November of 2021. That’s a lot of suspensions. In fact, even his Wikipedia page now lists him as the most suspended player. The only problem is he isn’t, either by most times suspended or most games suspended for.

The player with the most suspensions in NHL history is Bryan Marchment, who was repeatedly suspended by the league for attempting to deliberately injure other players. Perhaps most notably, one of his hits was so aggressive that he collapsed Mike Gartner’s lung. He was also widely disliked for his tendency to try knee-on-knee hits, which are some of the most dangerous hits in hockey and can permanently end your ability to play. For these and other violations, Marchment was suspended a total of 13 times, almost double Marchand’s current total. Marchment wasn’t playing in a proto version of the league either. His NHL career spanned from 1988-2006. Since the “modern” era began in the mid-90s, and the salary cap era (the current NHL span) began in 2005, Marchment was playing under more or less exactly the same rules as Marchand, and in fact, rules that were generally seen as a bit easier-going on infractions. There’s simply no way to argue that Marchand has out-suspended Marchment. Nor is Marchand even uniquely in second place with his 8 suspensions. Anaheim Ducks player Chris Pronger was suspended for the 8th time in 2008 after stomping on the leg of an opposing player.

What about time suspended? Marchand has been suspended for a cumulative 28 games. Evander Kane, another currently active player in the league, has been suspended for a total of 31 games. Neither of those totals come close, however, to some other players. Raffi Torres was suspended for 41 games in 2015, a full 50% of the season, in the longest single suspension ever. Combined with his 4 other suspensions, Torres weighs in at a whopping 74 games missed, almost 3 times as long as Marchand. Chris Simon was suspended 30 games for stepping on a Pittsburgh Penguins player, which is more games in a single suspension than Marchand has served cumulatively; when combined with his other suspensions, Simon missed a total of 65 games. One player, Billy Coutu, was just straight up suspended for life from the NHL after attacking two referees and starting a bench-clearing brawl in the 1927 playoffs.

Although Marchand has been suspended a lot, and is un-fondly referred to as “the rat”, he’s not even the most notorious player or suspension, in part because he’s never faced criminal charges! That honour probably goes to Todd Bertuzzi, who was suspended for 20 games after sucker-punching Steve Moore in the back of the head and falling on top of him, breaking several of Moore’s vertebrae and permanently ending his hockey career. Bertuzzi also faced criminal charges and pleaded guilty to criminal assault causing bodily harm, and ultimately had to pay an undisclosed legal settlement to Moore. Other players have also been convicted on criminal charges for hockey infractions, such as Marty McSorley’s 18 month probationary sentence for assault with a weapon (he slashed an opponent in the head with his stick, knocking him out, and was suspended for 23 games for the incident–-he retired before he finished the suspension, so he is, technically, still suspended).

Ultimately, Brad Marchand is neither the most suspended, longest cumulative suspended, or even in the top ten most cumulative suspension time in the NHL. Unlike a great many other statistics, there doesn’t appear to be any sort of list cataloging NHL suspensions, so I guess the more casual fans repeating this can be forgiven. As for the analysts, writers, and otherwise “in the know” people, there isn’t really an excuse-–most of the suspensions listed here were far from the early days of the NHL that have passed out of living memory. I can only hope that next time I happen to glance at a hockey game during one of my breaks, the graphics team has done some basic research.

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Sourcesnhl.com news archives

https://www.theversed.com/5328/chris-simon-incredible-history-nhl-suspensions/#.ypzulHZnX3

CBC, Hockey: A People's History, 2006.

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EDIT: fixed a word