I saw this Scheifele hit on Jake Evans, and while it was a brutal hit, my prediction is no suspension or time served from ejection to possibly 2 games at most. My reasoning is as follows. First, reports are that Evans was not hurt by the hit, and will not miss any games. If that's true, it's a classic "no harm, no foul" situation. Second, Scheifele has no suspension history. This is totally unlike the Tom Wilson/Artemi Panarin situation in which Panarin had his season ended by the hit, which was not even during the hockey action. Despite ending Panarin's season and despite Wilson having 5 prior suspensions and despite not being a hockey play in the hockey action, no suspension. Here we have no injury, no history and it was a hockey play albeit a very brutal hit.
Someone mentioned above that Jake Evans is a gritty player who has used pride and guts to make his way from 7th round draft pick to a difference making player. While that is laudable, it has zero bearing and relevance and absolutely nothing to do with whether Scheifele will be suspended. While Scheifele is a 6'5" Gorilla, so is Wilson, and Wilson wasn't suspended.
So my thinking is time served is likely and maybe 2 games at most. Scheifele is a key guy for Winnipeg, and the NHL might not want him out of games when there is no competitive disadvantage that has resulted from the hit. Plus, he has generally been a good boy in the NHL and no prior suspensions, even though he is a big aggressive Gorilla.
