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Matt Petgrave Has Been Described as His League’s ‘Most Penalized Player,’ but He’s Also Mentored Youth
HEAVY.com
Hockeydb.comMatt Petgrave.
3ice described Petgrave as “the EIHL’s most penalized player” while playing for the Sheffield Steelers.
Euro Hockey listed Petgrave as the league’s penalty leader for 2022-23 for the EIHL. The page says he had 129 PIM or “penalty infraction minutes.”
Although that site doesn’t list the infractions, it’s possible to find old box scores showing Petgrave’s penalties. For example, he accrued a penalty for “tripping” in 2015-16 for New Brunswick, according to a box score for that game. He had a penalty for “holding” in 2020 while playing for the Utica Comets, in another example. He was called for “spearing” in a 2022 game with the Sheffield Steelers, according to the Elite Ice Hockey League.
From 2013 to 2017, he was listed as having 328 career penalty minutes, according to Vredshockey.com.
In 2010, Petgrave was suspended for five games, according to the Canadian Hockey League, which wrote, “Matt Petgrave will sit out the next five games for an infraction in the third period of last Saturday’s 9-4 win over Sarnia.”
In 2018, the ECHL announced that “Brampton’s Matt Petgrave has been suspended indefinitely and fined an undisclosed amount as a result of his actions in ECHL Game #963, Brampton at Kalamazoo, on April 7.” The ECHL is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in New Jersey.
That same year, he was suspended for one game, according to the American Hockey League, which wrote on its website, “Laval Rocket defenseman Matt Petgrave has been suspended for one (1) game as a consequence of a slew-footing incident in a game at Toronto on Mar. 28. Petgrave was suspended under the provisions of AHL Rule 21.1 after being assessed a match penalty. He will miss Laval’s game tonight (Mar. 30) at Binghamton.”
According to the U.S. Hockey Rule Book, “Slew Footing is the act of a player using his leg or foot to knock or kick an opponent’s feet from under him.”
A statement on the ECHL’s website said, “Petgrave is fined and suspended under Rule #28 – Supplementary Discipline as a result of his actions at 3:46 of the third period. Petgrave will miss Brampton’s game against Adirondack today (April 8) and any further discipline will be announced at a later date.” That article did not provide additional details.
According to his LinkedIn page, Petgrave says he helped mentor youth interested in hockey, writing that he was “responsible for the hockey development of students age 7-adult. The skills I developed from teaching, especially the younger kids are life forming. Through this job I learned the importance of patience, clear communication and persistence.”
He has also worked as a summer associate for Pure Octane, which sells household products, according to his LinkedIn page.
A man named Sebastian Jackson who says he knows Petgrave and whose X profile lists his experience as a girls’ hockey club volunteer wrote, “Matt Petgrave had to lock all of his socials due to death threats, & people just being absolute scum bag humans. I’ve met Matt, plenty of times. If you think because he has a lot of penalty minutes that he’s a horrible human you’re wrong. Quit being a** hole humans for f*** sake.”
He added that some people were calling Petgrave racial slurs on X, and wrote, “Matt is one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet. It’s a freak accident but some of you just want to drag someone for the sake of it.”
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