NHL Player Safety throws the book at Matt Rempe for his dangerous hit on Miro Heiskanen.

The New York Rangers will have to play without forward Matt Rempe for quite some time, although I doubt that will have a significant impact on the team given the very limited the number of games Rempe plays to begin with over the course of a season.

On Sunday, Rempe had a meeting with the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety following a dangerous hit he delivered to Dallas Stars star defenseman Miro Heiskanen on Friday. Rempe was offered an in person hearing by the disciplinary arm of the NHL but instead opted to have the meeting over a zoom call, perhaps realizing that he was headed towards a massive suspension regardless of any defense he may have had in mind when it comes to the hit.

The result of that meeting is a truly massive suspension with Rempe suspended for a total of 8 games for elbowing, which will keep him out of the Rangers lineup until at least January 9th when the Rangers face off against the New Jersey Devils. As I mentioned it is debatable just how much that will impact the Rangers with Rempe having played just a total of 22 NHL games over the course of the past two seasons.

It comes as no surprise that the league has chosen to throw the book at Rempe here given his disciplinary history, especially when compared to the number of games he has played in the league. Rempe was previously suspended 4 games under the elbowing rule when he delivered an ugly hit to the head of Devils’ defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler, which made it seem very likely that his suspension for the same infraction this time around would be more severe.

Additionally Rempe has been ejected 4 times already despite only playing a career total of 22 games in the NHL. Receiving multiple suspension over such a short stretch of game is very uncommon in the NHL and likely served as just one more reason that the NHL decided to hit Rempe with such a lengthy suspension.

It does make me wonder how effective Rempe will be in the future if the threat of even bigger suspensions will be hanging over his head, as Rempe is effectively there purely to be a physical presence on the ice.

Update: The NHL has released a full breakdown of their ruling, you can see it in the video below: