The London Knights continue to win the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Finals, but have been without center (and St. Louis Blues prospect) Landon Simm since Game 6 of the OHL Conference Finals. He was suspended for five games due to an “on-ice incident.” The Knights were up 3-0 in the final against the Oshawa Generals, and Simm won't be back unless a Game 5 is forced. There's a lot of discussion going back and forth about what happened, but it seems like the OHL office only wants to consider one side of the story.
Let's take a look at why this was a wild decision by the OHL that sparked controversy across the sport.
Sim's words on the ice lead to suspension.
The alleged incident occurred during the conference finals series against the Saginaw Spirit. Simm's agent, Andrew Maloney, claims that the Spirit defenseman threatened to fracture Simm's shoulder (shoulder injury) after he made contact with the forward during warm-ups. This caused Sim to allegedly reply: You are too incompetent to do that. ”
The Spirit defenseman went to referee Joe Monette and repeated what Simm allegedly said. After consultation with the linesman, the decision was made to give Sim a match violation for unsportsmanlike conduct. The OHL then suspended Sim for five games, citing the league's “diversity, abuse and bullying” policy. Since the suspension was for less than 10 games, there was no avenue for appeal. This is a really interesting case, and it's hard to understand why the OHL would go to this length to set a precedent like this.
OHL sets bad precedent with latest suspension
After all, this kind of conversation between opponents requires proper context, and suspending a player for words that were not intended to mean anything other than calling an opponent “sweet” , which is a wrong decision in my opinion. It wasn't a racial slur, nor was it meant to be anything more than a response. Without sufficient evidence, it's hard to see how the OHL can justify going this far. This set a precedent that anything said on the ice before, during or after a heated game could be severely punished. I understand it's junior hockey, but there is no video evidence and there are always two sides to the story. If what his agent claims is true, it's hard to understand why Sim would receive a five-game suspension.
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Considering the Knights' overwhelming strength in the finals, there is a good chance that Sim will not be able to suit up and win with his team. The 19-year-old played three seasons with the Knights and was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the sixth round of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft. He is a tough player who plays with passion.
This is a difficult case to handle. As with the OHL for young players, he can learn a lot from it. They may want to think about future policies and how to deal with incidents like this. Again, if he made a racist or homophobic remark, that would be completely unacceptable and warrant a suspension. I'm not saying it's “OK” to use derogatory language like Sims, but you have to consider context and intent here. According to his side of the story, he was responding to an alleged threat from a player on Spirit. Given the fact that suspensions of less than 10 games cannot be reviewed or reevaluated, the rules need to be reconsidered, and the powers of the league's commissioner's office need to be reevaluated as well.
Overall, I don't think the league handled this properly and it's an excessive punishment for Sim. Of course, this is my opinion and everyone is welcome to have their own opinion, but I find it hard to believe that this incident was handled properly by the OHL.
