How is Kelly Babstock’s Suspension Oddity a Thing?

Boston Fleet forward Kelly Babstock was handed a two-game suspension on March 29th by the PWHL Player Safety Committee. Babstock was given a match penalty for slew-footing in the final seconds of the Fleet’s game against the Toronto Sceptres on March 26th. The committee concluded that Babstock had “used her upper and lower body simultaneously” to cause Sceptres forward Jesse Compher to fall backwards in a dangerous manner onto the ice.

Babstock was signed by the Fleet last season and has spent the majority of her PWHL career on the reserve list. She has been activated off the list a few times. So far she has played nine games and accumulated nine penalty minutes. She was previously suspended for one game in January for cross-checking.

Babstock served the first game of her suspension on March 29th, missing Boston’s game against Ottawa. On April 1, the Fleet announced they had moved Bastock back to the reserve list after signing Jillian Dempsey to a Standard Player Agreement. Babstock was still on the reserve list when Boston played their final game the next day before the PWHL paused for the international break. When the league returned to play and the Fleet announced their roster moves before the end of the season, it included Bastock coming back and drawing in for the final stretch of games.

The only problem is, she was suspended for two games and had technically only been on the active roster for one. The confusion lies in how a reserve player managed to finish a suspension while on the reserve list.

Sportswriter Jared Book shared on X that he reached out to the PWHL, who confirmed to him that Babstock did indeed serve her suspension while not on the active roster. Book shared the response he received from the league:

“As a result of the suspension, Babstock was ineligible for two games that Boston may have otherwise used her in the lineup which satisfies the intent of supplementary discipline. After the roster freeze, reserve players are eligible to be activated for a variety of reasons. The move in this instance was permitted as an opportunity for a reserve player to get into the lineup.”

In other words, the league decided that Babstock’s suspension could be completed while she was on reserve, because Boston could have added her back onto the active roster if they were in a situation where they needed to. If that would have happened and the Fleet were dealing with injuries or illness, then Babstock would be an option to be added into the lineup.

What doesn’t make sense, is that the purpose of a suspension is that a player isn’t allowed to play in a game they would have played in normally. Both Babstock and the Fleet would have been at a disadvantage because of her behavior - in other words, fulfilling a suspension's purpose. Being able to place her on reserve and sign another player to an SPA isn’t accepting discipline – it’s avoiding it.

Reserve players are not on the active roster; they serve as healthy scratches, and they don’t get the same benefits as players on the active roster. They do not get to travel with the team, they do not have regular playing time, and they do not get paid the same. But, a team can easily send a player down and be done with a suspension and not have their play affected. The reserve list is something that the PWHL is still trying to figure out, but to use it as a loophole is unfair to all the players and teams in the league.

It is unreasonable to use a reserve player in this capacity because when the PWHL needs to justify a move like this, they see Babstock as a healthy scratch, but when Babstock and the other players on reserve lists around the league need to decide if they can live off the reserve pay – they’re left on their own.