Ryan Hartman denies Cole Perfetti’s accusation, adds fuel to fire with this comment!

On Tuesday, Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman received a maximum fine of $4,427.08 from the league for high-sticking Winnipeg Jets forward Cole Perfetti in the face. The fine and incident quickly got trending since Perfetti was mic’ed up and claimed Hartman’s actions were intentional.

Late on Thursday night, Wild insider Michael Russo of the Athletic got down to the bottom of the saga with Hartman, who denied the accusations that he intentionally hit Perfetti as retaliation for teammate Kirill Kaprizov’s injury.

“It’s written on the wall that he’s wearing a mic,” Hartman told Russo after Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“I know he’s wearing a mic all game. He comes up to me multiple times and asks me if I did it on purpose. And finally, all I told him was, ‘I’m not gonna say it wasn’t on purpose.’

“So I didn’t tell him, ‘Hey, I did that on purpose.’ He kept coming up to me, and I finally said, ‘I’m not gonna say it wasn’t on purpose.’ That was the extent of it.”

Hartman has often gotten in trouble when he faces the Jets, getting a one-game suspension for interference after injuring Nikolaj Ehlers in Winnipeg’s second last game of the 2022-23 season. He however admits he’s attempting to improve his conduct on the ice, but still admitted he is glad Perfetti got hit in the face.

“I’m trying to be better on draws,” Hartman said about the incident with Perfetti. “The kid comes in with his head really low, and I’m trying to be hard on the puck and hard on him. So you can take that any way you want.

“On my Ehlers suspension, Ehlers runs Kirill behind the net, so I make a hard, clean hit on Ehlers after I have the puck. And, obviously, with this play, how it happened, I’m not sorry he got hit in the face. It happens on faceoffs. And as far as what I said, that I’m not going to say it wasn’t on purpose, if I can say something to get them fired up and get them to retaliate, I’m not going to apologize to the kid or say it was an accident. I’m going to try to fire them up.”

While this intentional or not high-sticking story has been sorted out by the NHL, you have to believe it could come up against when the Jets and Wild meet again on February 20 in Winnipeg.

Hartman, who has 11 goals and 18 points in 32 games with Minnesota this season, has already been suspended this season, and could get in trouble if Perfetti or any other Jets player get under his skin during their next meeting.

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