Boston Bruins
This marks the third time that McAvoy has been suspended in his NHL career.
Charlie McAvoy will miss the start of next season due to a suspension. (Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe
May 12, 2026 | 5:32 PM
3 minutes to read
The Boston Bruins are going to be without their top defenseman for the first few weeks of the 2026-27 season.
The NHL Department of Player Safety announced on Tuesday evening that defenseman Charlie McAvoy has been suspended six games for slashing Buffalo Sabres forward Zach Benson.
McAvoy had an in-person hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety on Monday, which opened the door for the 28-year-old defenseman to be hit with a sizable suspension. In-person hearings — as opposed to a phone hearing — open the door for a player to be suspended six or more games.
The incident happened during Boston’s eventual season-ending loss to the Sabres on May 1.
With Buffalo up, 4-1, in the third period of Game 6 at TD Garden, McAvoy was slew-footed by Benson while the two were racing for the puck. McAvoy crashed into the boards, got up, and swung his stick against Benson, striking him in the arm.
While Benson was whistled for tripping on the play, McAvoy was hit with both a five-minute major for slashing and a game misconduct.
“You don’t want to see a guy take a chop like that at somebody else,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said postgame. “I haven’t looked at the play. I think he feels that Benson tripped him on the play and took his feet out from underneath him.
“Our thoughts on the end of the game was, ‘Let’s just get through the end of the game.’ We’re not going to try to score. We’re just going to get through the game. Again, I’m just going to say raw emotion. Charlie is a hell of a player, cares about winning. Anybody would want Charlie on his team. Probably went a little too far, though.”
During Boston’s end-of-season media availability on May 3, McAvoy was asked if he was surprised to get a call from the Department of Player Safety.
“I didn’t give it too much thought at all. I was caught up in the end of the season and losing. That was more where my focus was,” McAvoy said. “With everything related to that, out of respect for the process, I’m not going to comment anything on that until I have a chance to speak with them.”
This marks the third time McAvoy has been suspended by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety.
In 2019, McAvoy served a one-game ban during the Stanley Cup Playoffs for an illegal check to the head against then-Columbus forward Josh Anderson. In 2023, he was suspended for four games for an illegal check to the head of Florida’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
McAvoy’s presence will be missed at the start of next season. Despite missing 13 games due to injury this past year, McAvoy led the Bruins in average ice time per game (24:23) while scoring a career-high 61 points (11 goals, 50 assists) in 69 games.
Speaking last week, Bruins head coach Marco Sturm offered up an endorsement of McAvoy, while also acknowledging that the former BU product needs to work on keeping his emotions in check at times.
“He’s a Boston Bruin for me, and he shows it daily, on the ice, off the ice, so I really like that,” Sturm said. “The one thing I was trying to get him better at is keeping his emotions even, I would say, and he did, overall, a tremendous job, and that’s why he had, probably one of his best years ever.
“Are there still times he kind of goes crazy? Yes, it’s almost like you can’t even get mad at him because he cares so much. But on the other side, that’s something he just needs to get better at, because I feel like when he’s under control, he plays his best hockey, and he showed it with us. He showed it with Team USA at the Olympics, and that’s something we’re [going to] continue to get better and better, but the way he played and the way he acted, it was outstanding.”
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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