NEW YORK (AP) -- NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will cut four games off the 25-game suspension given to Coyotes forward Raffi Torres during the playoffs.
The NHL announced the decision Monday, reducing the suspension after Torres filed an appeal of league disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan's original ruling.
Torres was suspended April 21 and missed the Coyotes' final 13 playoff games after he left Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa with a concussion following a high, hard, borderline-late hit. He will sit out all of the upcoming preseason and the first eight games of the 2012-13 regular season. He will be eligible to return Nov. 2, when the Coyotes play the Senators in Ottawa.
Torres will miss the Coyotes' game against the Blackhawks in Chicago on Oct. 30, and the two teams don't meet again until a home-and-away set on Feb. 9 and Feb. 12.
Torres will forfeit roughly $170,731 in salary during the suspension.
The 25-game ban had been tied for the second longest in NHL history, behind only then-Islanders forward Chris Simon's 30-game ban — which was
the seventh suspension of his career — for stomping on the leg of the
Penguins' Jarko Ruutu in 2007. Simon also got a 25-game suspension
during the previous playoffs, similar to Torres' ban, for a slash to the
face of the Rangers' Ryan Hollweg. Flyers forward Jesse Boulerice
received a 25-game suspension in 2007 for a crosscheck to the face of
the Canucks' Ryan Kesler.
