{"id":625601,"date":"2026-04-24T13:25:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/625601\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T13:25:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:25:30","slug":"nhl-commissioner-holds-court-in-nations-capital-before-senators-hurricanes-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/625601\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL commissioner holds court in nation’s capital before Senators-Hurricanes game"},"content":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 NHL commissioner Gary Bettman provided context Thursday on why the league modified the sanction imposed on the Ottawa Senators<\/a> for their role in connection with Evgenii Dadonov<\/a>\u2019s trade to Vegas in 2021 and the Golden Knights\u2019 subsequent invalidated deal with the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n

The league punished the Senators with the forfeiture of a first-round draft pick after the Vegas-Anaheim was nullified due to no-trade clause documentation that protected Dadonov from a move to the Ducks. <\/p>\n

Vegas never had Dadonov\u2019s documentation because Ottawa failed to provide it. His contractual preference wasn\u2019t public knowledge at the time as clauses are confidential, partly to protect the player\u2019s privacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt needed to be disclosed, and it wasn\u2019t,\u201d Bettman said at Canadian Tire Centre before the Senators played the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> in Game 3. \u201cWhether or not it was intentional \u2014 or if it was negligent \u2014 didn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, the league decided the Senators would not have to forfeit a first-round pick, but would rather have the 32nd pick of the first round in the 2026 NHL Draft and pay a fine of $1 million.<\/p>\n

When Michael Andlauer took the Senators\u2019 helm as the franchise\u2019s new owner in September 2023, he made changing the league\u2019s penalty a priority. <\/p>\n

\u201cMichael Andlauer, from the time he closed on the franchise, made it clear to me that this was something important to him in the franchise,\u201d Bettman said. \u201cHe understood the need for there to be some punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penalizing no-trade clause negligence was important to Bettman so it remained clear to other teams how seriously the NHL takes compliance to its trade processes, but \u201cwas comfortable that some adjustment might be fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league is in discussions with the NHL Players\u2019 Association over changing its system of disclosing information like no-trade clauses in player trades.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that we don\u2019t have a situation where that information isn\u2019t available to us,\u201d Bettman said.<\/p>\n

A NEW HOME<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret Andlauer and the Senators are closing in on a deal to purchase the land needed for a new arena in downtown Ottawa \u2014 less than two kilometres west of Parliament Hill compared to the current arena\u2019s 23-kilometre trek from the capital.<\/p>\n

The next step to secure a $37-million 11-acre plot of land in Ottawa\u2019s Lebreton Flats from the National Capital Commission is an agreement with the Algonquin Anishinabe Nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m told, as recently as when I walked in the door, things are continuing on a positive track,\u201d Bettman said.<\/p>\n

But with ground still unbroken on the new site, let alone officially purchased, Bettman was clear \u201ceverybody needs to be patient.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut sooner would be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

IF IT WORKS, DON\u2019T FIX IT<\/p>\n

Asked about the PWHL\u2019s jailbreak rule for shorthanded goals, the commissioner was abundantly clear that when it comes to the NHL rules: \u201cI like what we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some fans criticize the league\u2019s season point system, namely the single point teams take away from overtime losses \u2014 unlovingly known as the \u2018loser point.\u2019<\/p>\n

Tweaking the current system takes away from what Bettman considers to be \u201ca terrific regular season,\u201d where the final months of the 82-game campaign amount to a \u201cplay-in tournament.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bettman cited this season\u2019s number of multi-goal comeback wins as a signifier of an entertaining on-ice product. Heading into the final quarter of the 2025-26 season, 42 per cent of games this season ended as comeback wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty healthy from an entertainment standpoint, in terms of keeping our fans engaged,\u201d Bettman said.<\/p>\n

RULES APPLIED \u201cPERFECTLY\u201d<\/p>\n

Carolina forward Mark Jankowski<\/a>\u2019s overtime winner in Game 2 was called back after a league-mandated review determined there was a missed offside call. <\/p>\n

But adding another wrinkle to the play, Jankowski buried the nullified goal on a delayed penalty \u2014 Jordan Martinook<\/a> was fouled by an Ottawa defender on a breakaway 30 seconds earlier.<\/p>\n

Although the referees verified the offside call, they didn\u2019t void the Senators\u2019 breakaway infraction.<\/p>\n

Bettman reasoned that calling a goal back for an offside is not effectively erasing everything that comes after because \u201cthere are no freebies on penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinook was awarded a penalty shot, which created enough confusion that a considerable number of fans left their seats as if the game was already over.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hockey operations and the officials applied the rules perfectly,\u201d Bettman said. \u201cWhile I know, at the moment, there was some confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fittingly, it was Martinook who eventually buried a valid winner in the second overtime to give the Hurricanes a 2-0 series lead heading into Thursday\u2019s Game 3.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2026. <\/p>\n

David Cummings, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 NHL commissioner Gary Bettman provided context Thursday on why the league modified the sanction imposed on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,83,20739,82],"class_list":["post-625601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-disaster","tag-ottawa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625601","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=625601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}