What is The Daily Clutter?
It’s pretty simple. We’re going to send out a daily post to update our fans, The ClutterPuckers, on anything Minnesota Hockey or hockey in general and we might sprinkle in some other fun things, too.
Today we have share some Clutter on the beginning of the PWHL, the Professional Women’s Hockey League, the 2024 Winter Classic and the Winter Classic in general and a little about NHL fines and why they are & kind of have to be so low!
––––– CP –––––
Minnesota Wild
The Record: 16-15-4 (W-L-OTL); 36 points, 7th in NHL’s Central Division
The Minnesota Wild will try to get back to winning but will be without F Marcus Foligno as the injuries continue to pile up. F Sammy Walker was recalled from the Wild’s AHL Affiliate, the Iowa Wild.
The PWHL Began Yesterday!
That’s Professional Women’s Hockey League* if you didn’t know!
There is now one league for the best female hockey players in the world and they started their inaugural season on New Year’s Day!
Attendance records were broken! A lot of firsts for the league happened (goal, win, shutout, etc…) The majority of the hockey community is doubting they’ll have much success but we hope they succeed in year one and beyond, especially in Minnesota.
*Here’s something kind of funny. The PWHL had to go with thepwhl.com because PWHL.com was already taken by… Pigeon Wholesale Handmade Linens. The email for more info about their linens is… info@pwhl.com! Have they received a lot more email in the last few months? Is this a sponsor opportunity for the league? The Official Linens of the PWHL is the PWHL! BOOM! That just writes itself, people!
We are the State of Hockey so get out there and support your PWHL Minnesota team! Their home games will be played at the Xcel Energy Center and all games will be televised on Bally Sports North!
GET TICKETS HERE!!!
Ticket options are Full Season, Half Season or Single-Game Tickets!
There are 5 different ticket prices ($19, $24, $34, $45 & $65) but, unfortunately, the main ticket seller is TicketMaster so you’re going to get screwed on fees.
Who knew it was more work to serve someone buying more expensive tickets? It took me the same amount of time to select the higher-priced tickets as it did to select the lower-priced tickets so why is the service fee higher for the higher-priced tickets?
The Home Opener is on January 6th vs Montreal!
––––– CP –––––
The 2024 IIHF World Junior Championships entered the medal round:
––––– CP –––––
The 2024 NHL Winter Classic
It’s a cool event, no pun intended, but we didn’t watch it. We can’t stand Vegas (don’t ask!) and we find it pretty sad that the NHL gives Seattle a Winter Classic in their 3rd season.
There are always great visuals:
There are 32 teams in the NHL and only two teams haven’t been in an outdoor game in either the Winter Classic, the Heritage Classis or a Stadium Series game. Those two teams… the Arizona Coyotes & the Columbus Blue Jackets. What do you think the fans of those two teams think of Seattle getting a Winter Classic in their 3rd season when they’ve been waiting since they began 17 years ago in 2008 to just play in an outdoor game?
Those teams haven’t been great over those 17 years. Arizona has made the playoffs just 4 times over that span and only once in the last 12 full seasons. They are in the thick of the battle to make it this season, though. Columbus? Just 6 times in 16 seasons and 3 straight seasons missing the dance.
Would anyone watch a Columbus vs Arizona Winter Classic or Stadium Series game other than those teams’ fans? Not likely. That and their lack of regular-season success are the major reasons they have yet to take the game outdoors.
It’s all about the ratings and the money, right? Show me something! Tell me why we should give you an outdoor game!
Many other teams have yet to host a Winter Classic or an outdoor game too. 11 teams have hosted a Winter Classic. The Boston Bruins have had three and played in 4. Chicago has hosted 1 and played in 4. Buffalo, Detroit, the New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis & Washington have hosted 1 & played in 2.
We won’t go through them but here’s the list of the Stadium Series games if you want to look at them. There have been 13 of them and there are 2 scheduled for February 17th & 18th at the New York Jets MetLife Stadium:
––––– CP –––––
Do NHL Fines Seem Too Low?
Minnesota Wild F Ryan Hartman was fined $4,427 for High-Sticking Winnipeg Jets F Cole Perfetti on Sunday afternoon.
Whenever a player gets fined, there are usually a few people who ask why the fine is so low. Their reason for thinking that is because the NHL has players making over $10M/season. There are 15 players to be exact but there are also players making as little as $756K* so they can only fine them so much.
*As if $756K is a little, right? GEEZ! It would take 30 years to get to $750K if you made just $25K/year! Now, I’m sad! Keep working hard on whatever your dream is!
From the Department of Player Safety:
“Players can be fined up to 50% of one day’s salary, up to a maximum of $10,000.00 for their first offense, and $15,000.00 for any subsequent offenses (the player had been fined in the 12 months before this fine).[1] Coaches, non-playing personnel, and teams are not restricted to such maximums, though they can still be treated as repeat offenders.”
– The thoery of players repeatedly making these plays because the fines aren’t that much to them is debunked by the fine going up for subsequent offenses.
If you wondered where the money from fines goes:
“Players’ money forfeited due to suspension or fine goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund, while money forfeited by coaches, staff or organizations as a whole goes to the NHL Foundation.”
Should fines be bases on a percentage of a player’s pay instead of half their daily cap hit?
Ryan Hartman’s salary this season is $2M. 1% of that is $20K so you start to understand why it’s based on their daily cap hit.
Kaprizov’s daily cap hit is $46.9K so he could be fined up to $10K because they set a maximum for any player since half of his cap hit is $23.45K.
Just an FYI since we’re talking about fines & money lost to bad plays. Here’s what a player loses for a suspension:
“Non-repeat offenders lose salary based on the number of days in the season. For example, if there are 190 days in a season, a three game suspension would cost a non-repeat offender 3/190ths of his average salary.
Repeat offenders lose salary based on the number of games in a season (82). For example, a three game suspension would cost a repeat offender 3/82nds of his average salary.”
So… we’ll use Ryan Hartman’s contract as an example here too. His daily cap hit is $8,854 so a 3-game suspension if he were a non-repeat offender would cost him $26,562 but he is a repeat offender since he’s been suspended before so that means he would cost him $73,170.73!
It was also revealed yesterday by Winnipeg Jets F Cole Perfetti that Minnesota Wild F Ryan Hartman intentionally hit him with a high-stick as retaliation for the two cross-checks that Kirill Kaprizov took from Winnipeg Jets D Brendan Dillon:
That’s not a great look from Ryan Hartman but it also speaks to the bad officiating that resulted in no penalty called on two cross-checks to Kirill Kaprizov’s ribs and Kaprizov now being week-to-week:
––––– CP –––––
Thanks for Reading!!!
Bring the Clutter in the comments &/or on
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn…
AND…as always…
