With 11 Previous Suspensions, Zach L’Heureux Faces NHL Player Safety over Slew-foot

This won’t be the first time that Zachary L’Heureaux faces discipline for an illegal on-ice infraction (and it likely won’t be the last). But with 11 hockey suspensions in his past, from junior and the AHL, this will be his first hearing with NHL Player Safety, as the Nashville Predators rookie will be punished for his slew foot that injured Minnesota Wild captain Jared Spurgeon on Tuesday. 

Zach L’Heureux given a match penalty after slewfooting Wild captain Jared Spurgeon. Shades of his past life in junior coming out tonight. pic.twitter.com/7MmjWWKh1B

— Nick Kieser🏒 (@KieserNick) January 1, 2025

The 21-year-old L’Heureaux is in his first NHL season, and the 5'11", 197-pound forward leads all rookies in hits with 106. He has accumulated 32 penalty minutes in 33 games. But last year with the Milwaukee Admirals in the AHL he racked up a whopping 197 minutes in the sin bin in his 66 games, and received two AHL suspensions, to go with the nine he received from the QMJHL while with the Halifax Mooseheads and the Moncton Wildcats.

As for Spurgeon, the slew foot takedown led to his right leg slamming into the end boards. After laying on the ice in pain, he had to be helped off and left the arena on crutches with a large boot on his right leg. An MRI will determine what exactly his injuries are, though a report from Michael Russo indicates that the Wild will be without their top-four D-man "indefinitely."

The timing couldn't be worse for Minnesota, who are also currently without superstar forward Kirill Kaprizov due to a lower-body injury. 

Russo reports that the Wild are recalling defenseman Carson Lambos to take Spurgeon's spot on the roster, so recent trade acquisition David Jiricek’s debut with the team is still on hold.