Maple Leafs GM's Request to NHL Revealed After Auston Matthews Injury

“I tried to ask about how we got to five games,” Friedman said. “The Maple Leafs’ Brad Treliving called the league. He made a case for a big suspension, as far as I understand. He said, ‘This is bad for the league. It is our captain and best player. Imagine if we were in a playoff race. Imagine if we lost playoff games to it.’”

Friedman noted that Toronto referenced previous suspensions involving its own players while asking for a longer suspension.

“They talked about some of the suspensions they’ve received; Morgan Rielly got five games, and it was six down to four for Jason Spezza,” Friedman said. “They brought up Matt Cooke’s seven-game suspension in the 2014 playoffs. They felt it was a similar play, and they argued very strongly for the fact that even though Gudas hasn’t been suspended in a while, he should be punished severely.”

Ultimately, the NHLPA just took a page from its own book and applied a suspension similar to those handed out in the past, as Friedman explained.

“This is what the Players’ Association did, from what I understand: They came in and said, 'Here are all the kneeing suspensions from the last 15 years.' They said Cooke had the seven-gamer; there were three four-game ones — including Spezza’s reduction and Kaliyev’s, which had two preseason games — and nine were two-game ones. Three were one game,’” Friedman said. “The PA said, 'Look, with kneeing suspensions, 12 of the last 15 are one or two games.'”

Matthews finished the season with 27 goals and 53 points in 60 games, while Toronto enters its next matchup against the Minnesota Wild on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET.