Shortly after the incident occurred, I wrote a piece about the Raffi Torres suspension for an illegal and dangerous hit in preseason play on Jakob Silfverberg of the Anaheim Ducks.
I looked up what happened to Torres since then. It’s not much of a suprise, really. He was assigned to the AHL affiliate the San Jose Barracuda on a conditioning loan, and then traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs along with two draft picks in exchange for two players, Roman Polak and Nick Spaling. According to Rotoworld, Torres is done for the season after undergoing a medical procedure possibly related to his past knee injuries.
I don’t wish injury or illness on anyone. That isn’t who I am today. But the facts speak for themselves, and it is rather oddly fitting that a player who has engaged in reckless hits that have injured other players in the past is now missing time himself due to injuries, and now will have missed two entire regular seasons due to a combination of injuries and suspensions. Call it karma, fate, poetic justice, or whatever you want.
While Torres did play six games in the AHL before hanging it up for the season, it’s quite possible that nasty hit on Jakob Silfverberg will be Torres’s last NHL appearance. My hope is that players new to the NHL get a chance to learn from Torres’s mistakes, and what happens when one keeps disregarding the rules and the safety of other players, and thus acquires a reputation as a habitually dangerous player.