{"id":360419,"date":"2025-12-21T21:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T21:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/360419\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T21:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T21:09:07","slug":"snapshots-grzelcyk-vatrano-liljegren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/360419\/","title":{"rendered":"Snapshots: Grzelcyk, Vatrano, Liljegren"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago Blackhawks defenseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/grzelma01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-21_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Matt Grzelcyk<\/a> was <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NHLPlayerSafety\/status\/2002782451874328665?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">fined $2,604.17 by the NHL Department of Player Safety<\/a> for cross-checking Ottawa Senators\u2019 center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/stuetti02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-21_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tim Stutzle<\/a> on Saturday. It is the maximum allowable fine under the CBA for this infraction. Grzelcyk cross-checked Stutzle in the face during a scrum in front of the net and was awarded a double-minor penalty. He will avoid suspension for the incident, allowing him to stick in a true utility role for the Blackhawks. Grzelcyk has averaged over 20 minutes of ice time in his last five games, far above the 16 minutes he\u2019s averaged across the full season. He\u2019s a veteran two-way defender with six points, all assists, and a plus-three in 35 games this season.<\/p>\n<p>Other quick notes from around the league:<\/p>\n<p>Anaheim Ducks forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/v\/vatrafr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-21_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Frank Vatrano<\/a> was also <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NHLPlayerSafety\/status\/2002411826848452978?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">fined $5,000 by the NHL DPS<\/a> for unsportsmanlike conduct against Dallas Stars winger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/roberja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-21_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jason Robertson<\/a>. Vatrano ragdolled Robertson after a shoving match in front of the net turned into a scrum on the boards. He has 34 penalty minutes in 35 games this season, to go with only five points and a minus-11. This news will keep Vatrano in a daily, depth role for the Panthers.<br \/>\nThe San Jose Sharks could be without defenseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/l\/liljeti01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-21_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Timothy Liljegren<\/a> when they face the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday. Liljegren was designated as day-to-day and doubtful for Tuesday due to an upper-body injury, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CurtisPashelka\/status\/2002619849147887805?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">per Curtis Pashelka of Mercury News<\/a>. Liljegren has averaged top-line minutes over in 28 games this season, though he only has four assists and a minus-10 on the year. Still, the 26 year old has stepped into an important, veteran role on a young Sharks lineup. He\u2019ll be tough to replace, but rookie defender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/dickisa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-21_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sam Dickinson<\/a> and depth defender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/i\/ioriovi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-21_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Vincent Iorio<\/a> could be the one to benefit from the need for a bigger presence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Matt Grzelcyk was fined $2,604.17 by the NHL Department of Player Safety for cross-checking Ottawa&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[766,49,48,756,155148,5718,2364,448,764,7587,82,118936],"class_list":["post-360419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-frank-vatrano","tag-injury","tag-matt-grzelcyk","tag-nhl","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-snapshots","tag-sports","tag-timothy-liljegren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}