Inside the strange and secretive business of team-mandated NHL fines
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Joshua Kloke
Mar 27, 2023
Ryan Hartman walked into the Minnesota Wild practice facility with a sense of resolve. The nine-year NHL forward had been a healthy scratch the previous evening against the Philadelphia Flyers.
But righting a wrong was only one of the items on his to-do list.
“Today,” Hartman said, nodding while looking around the Wild dressing room, “is tax day.”
As he does once a month, Hartman will work his way around the Wild dressing room and collect money from his teammates.
The previous night, Hartman pored over a spreadsheet with updated tallies of who owes what. He sent out a flurry of text messages to teammates: “This is what you owe. I’m coming for you tomorrow.”
Call Hartman what you want: the taxman, the team treasurer, the fine master. Hartman has a volunteer position in charge of handling a consistently growing pot of money accrued from Wild players. Most teams require a player like Hartman because large amounts of money changing hands among teammates is a tradition in the NHL. That money is gathered in large part to encourage team building. Part of the money collected is because players voluntarily have put “money on board,” a practice of promising an amount of money before a game a player will owe should the team win, be it for playing in their hometown or, say, if they’re playing in a milestone game.
And then there’s another practice: getting fined for a variety of unconventional infractions.
“There’s so many things you get fined for,” Maple Leafs defenseman Mark Giordano said.
Not every team fines players. And many that do see it as a dwindling yet good-natured practice. It’s one some veterans believe has merit.
Welcome to the strange, almost-secretive world of team-mandated NHL fines.
Almost a generation ago, Marc-André Fleury was a reserved young goalie trying to man his way through the rules of his new life in the NHL: the unflappable importance of being on time for meetings and flights, the heightened dress codes compared to junior hockey — and, um, being well-mannered.
“There was a guy on Pittsburgh who would always pick his nose in the locker room,” Fleury said. The embarrassment of being caught wasn’t punishment enough. “So every time, guys would shout at him, ‘Hey, 10 bucks.’”
Early in Fleury’s rookie year, he got hit with his own first hefty fine.
“I couldn’t tie my tie,” Fleury said, recalling how then-veteran teammate Marc Bergevin would chirp him relentlessly. “So, I got fined because my tie looked terrible.”
A large percentage of team-directed fines remains contingent on wardrobe choices.
Leafs forward Zach Aston-Reese remembered a former teammate getting fined for wearing Cole Haan shoes. Even with the slowly shifting dress codes among NHL teams, teammates aren’t afraid to dole out fines if a player’s look starts to slip. That goes for accessories, too.
“At training camp, you get a (swag) bag with a bunch of stuff in it,” Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said. A former teammate was using it as his travel bag. “We said if he showed up for the next flight with that bag, it’s a $500 fine.”
Most players surveyed for this story agree $500 is the de facto fine amount.
Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk said one of his teammates might get fined this season because “all of his clothes and all of his luggage are either team-issued or NHLPA-issued.”
“You’re in the NHL,” Rielly said. “You’re not supposed to be wearing the same shirt six days in a row. I always think that’s pretty funny.”
It’s always veterans who enforce these kinds of fines.
“This year, we had a younger guy who had a little incident with his wardrobe choice at a dinner,” Buffalo Sabres captain Kyle Okposo said. “Sweatpants on the road. That’s worth a fine. He’s learning.”
Fines don’t stop at wardrobe-related infractions.
“I’m a big believer in the common sense fine,” Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Erik Gudbranson said. “A cheap one.”
Example: Should an NHL player get caught wearing white socks with dress shoes or leave their towel on the floor after coming out of the shower, these are fineable offenses according to Gudbranson, even if it’s just $50.
“Sometimes it can be funny,” Gudbranson said. “But it can also be a sign of respect.”
Not every team takes this approach, however.
New Jersey Devils defenseman Damon Severson was adamant that the Devils don’t have a strict dress code and, therefore, have barely had to fine any players this season.
“If you want to wear white shoes with dress socks, we don’t give a s— about any of that stuff here,” Severson said. “We believe just in being yourself. If you go back a few years, (former Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello) had rules with the dress code and shaving, but it’s kind of the opposite now — and that’s no disrespect to Lou. We want our personalities to be shown.”
Speaking of grooming habits, van Riemsdyk said if one of his Flyers teammates gets caught with a flashy new haircut, that’s a fine. He admits it’s a struggle for players like him who keep it tight up top. He said, almost quietly out of fear of getting found out by nearby teammates, that he got a haircut a few days prior.
“It almost works the other way: You get a haircut every two or three weeks, it doesn’t look like you’ve gotten a cut. Then you can steer clear of (a fine),” van Riemsdyk said.
Edmonton Oilers forward Derek Ryan knew he was going to get hit with a fine ahead of a game against the Arizona Coyotes on Dec. 7. While taking standard laps in warmup, Ryan bumped into a teammate and fell to the ice.
“My helmet went flying everywhere, stick on the ice,” Ryan said.
Wow, that’s embarrassing, Ryan thought to himself.
Equally embarrassing would be the shame of having to pay for the mistake afterward. Every team The Athletic surveyed agreed that when players fall on the ice during warmups, they’re on the hook for $500.
“I remember I knocked (then-teammate Brendan Shanahan) over in warmups,” Islanders forward Zach Parise recalled of the one season he spent alongside the Hall of Famer. “I wasn’t about to impose a fine for that.”
The rule has taken on different iterations league-wide. Fleury said the Wild charge double if a player loses his helmet. The Nashville Predators go the other way, according to defenseman Ryan McDonagh.
“If you fall on one knee, that’s only half the fine. But if it’s a full wipeout, that’s a full fine. You’ve got to be careful out there,” McDonagh said.
Then there’s the fine players are almost terrified of: being late for a team function, a meeting or a departing bus or flight.
“A team sin,” Severson said.
Driving through downtown Columbus en route to a team gala recently, Blue Jackets forward Sean Kuraly realized he was well behind schedule.
“The fine just stamps that you were late,” Kuraly said. “It’s embarrassing. It’s like you’re the guy who’s not following the things that help the team.”
Leafs forward Noel Acciari remembers during his time with the Florida Panthers that if a player was late for a meeting, they’d be on the hook for the next team dinner.
But that would easily be more expensive than a standard $500 fine, no?
“Especially when you know someone else is paying for dinner,” Acciari joked.
The list of fineable offenses doesn’t stop there: If a player, before puck drop, is taking part in a game of Sewer Ball — which players try to keep a soccer ball from hitting the ground in a circle to limber up — and you kick the ball to the ceiling, that’s a fine. Getting the ball stuck in the ceiling raises the fine even more.
If a cellphone starts ringing in a team meeting? One player said that’s a fineable offense on his Western Conference team.
Fleury recalled getting a $250 fine for breaking a stick.
“I was real mad after a game, and I swung my stick,” he said. “It was a wood stick, too, so it was only $60. So, they made a profit.”
Still, plenty of players surveyed by The Athletic insist they’ve avoided being fined throughout their entire NHL careers.
“You have to really screw up to get fined,” Rielly said.
OK, so you owe money for a fine, and it’s time to pay the piper. Sabres fine collector Zemgus Girgensons offers many payment options.
“I’ve got everything. Venmo, Square, check,” he said.
Every fine keeper throughout the NHL has their own manner of collecting fines, but most of them, like Predators fine keeper Colton Sissons, prefer payment electronically.
“We had to change with the times,” Sissons said, noting how he acquired a Square chip reader to accept payments. Sissons set up a separate bank account just for the team’s fine and money-on-the-board funds, and he owns a credit card for that account if he needs to make team-related purchases.
“It’s a business,” he said, only partly in jest. “I catch guys when we’re stuck on the plane together. They know I don’t take any s—.”
Hartman also uses a credit card swiper to collect fines.
“No excuses. If someone says, ‘I don’t have a check today,’ I’m like, ‘Well, hand me your wallet,’” he said.
There are other methods. Some teams such as the Blues and the Oilers take fines directly out of players’ paychecks.
“You didn’t even have to worry. Which is better, because you know it’s being taken care of,” Acciari said of his time with the Blues.
Some teams, like the Leafs, prefer to keep it old school and deal in cash only.
“It’s a hassle to go to the bank,” Leafs defenseman Justin Holl said.
To mitigate the hassle for Rielly, the Leafs collector, he had a safe built into his dressing-room stall at Scotiabank Arena. He’ll remind players of their dues on game days so he can quickly throw the money into his safe, though he openly admits “it’s hard to track guys down.”
It’s hard not to read Rielly’s efforts as him tiring of the process.
“I liked doing it (when he started),” Rielly said of being the fine keeper. “I don’t like doing it as much anymore.”
So why do it? What benefit is there for the fine keeper?
“Someone’s got to do it,” Girgensons said, shrugging his shoulders.
Multiple NHL players said for a player to be appointed the fine keeper, they only have to tick a few boxes: If you’re a well-liked and trusted veteran, this glamorous job may be yours for the taking.
“It’s actually a lot more work than anyone thinks,” Sissons said.
What about some slight interest in numbers? Perhaps balancing books for an NHL team’s fine fund is a precursor to a career after hockey in finance?
“I did like math class,” Sissons said. “But that’s not why I took the job. I guess people think I’m trustworthy.”
Modest as some of the fine keepers might be, there are perks to the job if you put the effort in. If you’re able to manage large sums of money and transfer them back and forth between a bank account and a credit card, you could be in for some sneaky benefits.
“I pay for things out of my own account, and I get all the points,” Sissons said.
Hartman agrees. After collecting payments from players, he uses a credit card to use that money to shell out for team events.
“The credit card is maxed out right now. We’ve had a few trips recently … with some big dinners,” Hartman said.
He’s not bothered though. The recently-engaged Hartman is thinking long-term: Stay on top of guys, and then use that money to pay for team functions, and those points will add up.
“Maybe I’ll get a honeymoon out of it,” he said, a smile creeping out from behind his thick beard.
Hartman’s plan isn’t devious by any means. Even for him, there is a team-building element to being the collector of the fines, and some NHL players informed of his process appeared slightly jealous. Every month, Hartman will buy three $500 Best Buy gift certificates and hand them out to his three Wild teammates who paid the most money that month into the team’s fund. It’s partly an incentive both for paying on time and for contributing to the team fund, but partly born out of Hartman’s own guilt.
“It’s a discount,” he said, modestly. “I feel bad. But we do spend it.”
And spend they do. Come the end of the season, there is always an effort to put the money back in the hands of the team.
For the Leafs, perhaps that means the team taking in an NFL game on the road. There are Super Bowl parties and Masters parties, too. And on Feb. 27, multiple Leafs took in a Bruce Springsteen concert in Seattle for some team-building and to help accelerate the bonding process for newcomers. The Leafs welcomed recently acquired teammates Sam Lafferty and Jake McCabe then.
“To get into an environment like that and get to know the guys is perfect,” McCabe said of the concert.
The year-end team party often sucks the most money out of the fine fund. The amount of money teams will spend on food, drinks, event space and the event itself varies, but multiple NHL players said somewhere in the range of $50,000 for a year-end party is a fair estimate.
Gudbranson noted how after the team’s head equipment manager, Jamie Healy, logged his 2,000th professional game on Jan. 29, the team dipped into the fund to purchase him a gift.
Ultimately, many NHL veterans view the money they can raise through the fine fund as less of a benefit to the team than the practice itself.
“Us veteran guys have to hold the young guys accountable more,” McDonagh said.
Gudbranson is adamant: The practice of good habits in the NHL has been “lost a little bit.”
The argument that fining young players heightens standards of professionalism league-wide is rooted in history. Gudbranson recalls his rookie duties while playing junior hockey for the Kingston Frontenacs: Unloading equipment from the team bus, mopping floors and helping out with laundry. These duties were not rituals to make players feel beyond uncomfortable, a practice that has no place in hockey. But, according to Gudbranson, understanding the benefits of working for the team is a concept that should be applied in the NHL. And if those concepts, such as respecting the dressing room, are forgotten, Gudbranson believes “the fine system can help with that.”
“You move away from home and your parents aren’t there to parent you anymore. Those little things, they teach you a lot,” Gudbranson said.
Of course, no young NHL player is going to be asked to mop the floor as a form of punishment.
But if fining young players for otherwise asinine offenses maintains a level of professionalism in the NHL, then veterans like Gudbranson aren’t going to be afraid to remind young players to have a credit card nearby at all times.
“You’re a professional athlete,” Gudbranson said. “You’ve got to act the part.”
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