Jets defenseman to have hearing with Department of Player Safety

The NHL’s Department of Player Safety tweeted on Wednesday morning that Winnipeg Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon will have a hearing today for his illegal check to the head of Pittsburgh Penguins forward Noel Acciari. 

According to Frank Seravalli of DailyFaceoff, the hearing will be a phone hearing, meaning that Dillon will receive a suspension of five games or less.

The hit happened at the 4:15 mark of the second period in a game that was 1-0 Pittsburgh at the time. Dillon was originally given a two-minute penalty and then received a match penalty on the play after it was reviewed.

Acciari hit the ice hard, and in a scary moment tried to get up to his feet, but fell back to the ice. He eventually skated off with assistance from the Penguins training staff and left the game with an undisclosed injury. Acciari was visibly bloody from the incident. 

The Penguins scored twice on the five-minute power play and eventually beat the Jets 3-0.

It wasn’t Dillon’s first run-in with the Penguins as Dillon has had some tough battles with Pittsburgh while he was a member of the Washington Capitals. 

He also had an incident back in January 2022 where he broke the jaw of former Penguins center Teddy Blueger with what appeared to be a check to the head. Dillon escaped discipline for that hit, but that doesn’t appear to be the case this time around.

Dillon’s absence will create a hole on the Jets’ backend as he has been playing over 18 minutes a night this season and is having one of his better offensive seasons while still providing sound defensive play for the team.