Avalanche center Nazem Kadri is facing a possible lengthy suspension for his check to the head of St. Louis Blues defenseman Justin Faulk in Game 2 of their Stanley Cup Playoff series.
Kadri was offered an in-person hearing on the matter via Zoom by the NHL Department of Player Safety on Thursday morning. Per NHL bylaws, a player is offered an in-person hearing if the incident might require a suspension of more than five games.
The Avs’ second-line center was issued a five-minute major and match penalty Wednesday night after hitting Faulk’s head with his shoulder in the third period.
“That’s a very dangerous hit. It’s got to be a suspension. It’s dangerous,” Blues center Ryan O’Reilly said after the Avs’ 6-3 victory. “He’s a repeat offender. That’s completely uncalled for. That’s awful to see.”
Kadri, who is in his second season with the Avalanche after playing his first nine with Toronto, has been suspended three previous times in the playoffs — four games in 2016, three in 2018 and for the rest of a first-round series in 2019. This will be his first suspension with Colorado.
“I think he’s trying to do the right thing,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said of Kadri on Thursday. “He comes back on a tracking play, (Faulk’s) getting within the danger zone of being in the scoring position and Naz comes in and gets physical. But you can see it on the tape that he catches him high, so we’ll just wait to see what the league has to say about it.
“Sometimes you just don’t know which way or how these things go. But we could be missing him for a little bit. I guess that’s part of the game. Sometimes you get caught in those positions and you’re trying to keep the puck out of your net and (Kadri) catches (Faulk) high. It’s unfortunate.”
The Blues’ Brayden Schenn compared Kadri’s hit to Tom Wilson’s hit on St. Louis’ Oskar Sundqvist in 2019 preseason, which resulted in a 20 game-suspension that was later reduced to 14.
“A guy like Kadri, he can’t control himself. In the playoffs, he’s a repeat offender. Bad hits. Greasy hits,” Schenn said.
Bednar said veteran Carl Soderberg is the likely addition at forward, but the coach has not decided on his lines.
Tyson Jost, J.T. Compher or rookie Alex Newhook might step in and replace Kadri as the second-line center. Jost is the best bet. He logged 15:56 in Game 2, had an assist and won 7-of-10 faceoffs in another impressive performance in all three zones.
Compher (13:04 in Game 2) has been the right winger on the fourth line but is a natural center. Newhook, 20, played a team-low 6:40 as the fourth-line left winger Wednesday; he is projected to become a top-six playmaker.
Kadri, who has just one goal in his last 29 games, isn’t deemed a huge loss because of his lack of offensive production and Colorado’s depth. Kadri was the only member of the Avs to play in all 56 games but he produced just 11 goals and 32 points, tied for sixth in team scoring.
Kadri is the Avs’ sixth highest-paid forward, with a $4.5 million cap hit through 2021-22.
“Out of control playoff Nazem Kadri rears his ugly head again,” TSN’s Craig Button said Thursday. “This is clearly an initial point of contact is the head. He picks the head. He can take another angle to deliver a body check to Justin Faulk, who was in a position to be hit, but Nazem Kadri doesn’t do that, and he goes after the head.”
Button added: “It clearly shows that he can’t learn, and he’s going to put his team in peril time and time again … This is silly. It’s stupid. It’s out of control. He’s going to pay a big price. What he’s got to hope for is his team doesn’t pay a big price.”
