Victor Eklund’s hit didn’t cost him a minute in the penalty box. Answering for it cost Mason Marchment $5,000.
The NHL Department of Player Safety announced Tuesday that the San Jose Sharks forward has been fined $5,000 for roughing the New York Islanders rookie during Monday night’s game in San Jose.
It all stemmed from the third period of Monday’s Islanders-Sharks game, with the score tied 2-2. At 8:48 of the third, Eklund ran Sharks forward Kiefer Sherwood into the boards and was assessed a major penalty for boarding. Referees Chris Rooney and Riley Brace reviewed the hit and rescinded the major entirely – Eklund received no penalty at all. (We’ve got the full breakdown of that review, and why the major vanished here.)
Marchment, though, had already responded. He was on Eklund immediately, throwing ungloved punches during the scrum that followed the hit. That earned Marchment a double minor for roughing at 8:52 – four minutes in the box and a four-minute Islanders power play, which New York promptly squandered by taking two penalties of its own.
(To be clear, the NHL rulebook does not actually have a double-minor for roughing. The officials actually assessed two separate minor penalties. Sure, that’s just bookkeeping, but maybe it indicates a need for some additional options for the officials here.)
Roughing is Rule 51 territory, and a garden-variety scrum doesn’t usually draw supplemental discipline. What elevates this one is the manner of it: bare-fist punches at an opponent tied up in a scrum, rather than a mutual exchange. Player Safety’s business is the punches a player throws at someone who isn’t in a position to defend himself, and Marchment’s response fit that description. From the NHL rulebook:
Roughing is a punching or slamming motion with or without the glove on the hand, normally directed at the head or face of an opponent … Roughing is a minor altercation that is not worthy of a major penalty to either participant.
Eklund was not injured on the play. He stayed in the game, finished with a career-high 18:05 of ice time and a team-high five hits, and scored a power-play goal in the second period – his sixth of the season and third straight game with a goal.
The Sharks’ forward has been called on the carpet by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety before. In February 2024, while with the Dallas Stars, he was fined $5,000 for interference on a late hit that bloodied Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe.
On Monday night, the player who threw the hit got nothing after review. The player who stuck up for his teammate got four minutes – and now gets the maximum fine on top of it.
The New York Islanders fell to the San Jose Sharks 3-2 in a shootout, with referees Chris Rooney (#5) and Riley Brace (#49) and linespersons Joe Mahon (#89) and Scott Cherrey (#50) working the game.
