Jared McCann appeared to shove linesman Travis Toomey from the Seattle Kraken bench during a post-whistle scrum in last night’s Vegas–Seattle game, and no penalty was called on the play. The contact came as Kraken players leaned over the boards at the bench doorway, with Toomey in the middle of the scrum separating the players.
That is why McCann’s name is being picked apart today. The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Seattle Kraken 6-2, but the score may matter less than what happened along the bench, where the contact looked close enough to raise the question of whether the league sees it as deliberate force against an official or as incidental contact in the mess of a scrum.
Josh Smith wrote on Oct. 7, 2026 that McCann “may have a Department of Player Safety problem,” and the shorthand for why is Rule 40.1: any player who deliberately applies physical force against an official gets a game misconduct. Rule 40 also sets out heavier punishment tiers, including Category II at 10 games and Category III at 3 games, which is why the incident is drawing attention beyond a routine postgame look.
The complication is the same one that often decides these cases. The automatic Physical Abuse of Officials penalty does not apply when no penalty is called on the play, so the non-call matters as much as the contact itself. That leaves the league to decide whether McCann’s few shoves on Toomey’s back were a deliberate act from the bench or just part of a crowded scrum where bodies were already pressing over the boards.
Smith said intent is not the league’s test under Rule 40; deliberate contact is. That makes McCann’s case unusual, because it involves a player on the bench rather than a skater in open ice, and it puts the focus on how the contact looked, not what McCann may have meant in the moment. The game officials were referees Brandon Blandina and Chris Schlenker and linespersons Travis Toomey and Kiel Murchison.
What happens next is whether the Department of Player Safety decides the clip fits Rule 40.1 or treats it as contact lost inside the scrum. If it lands in the first category, McCann is staring at discipline that can start with a game misconduct and move into suspension territory; if it lands in the second, the play may end as a hard but unpunished moment in a 6-2 loss that already belonged to the Vegas Golden Knights.
