Tom Wilson's suspension delivers a huge blow to his bank account.

Late on Saturday night the National Hockey League, via the Department of Player Safety, announced that they would be suspending Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson for a whopping 7 games. It was a massive suspension, especially when you consider the condensed nature of this current season which adds more value to each individual game, and it is one that will cost Wilson far more than just games.

As is standard policy in the NHL, a player who is suspended for any length of time is also required to forfeit his salary for the games that he will be forced to miss and Wilson will be no exception to this rule. NHL insider Chris Johnston is now reporting just how much Wilson will lose, a staggering $311,781.61 in actual salary, and it is an amount that no one is going to be happy with losing no matter how much they make each season.

Now this dollar amount may change over time as there has already been considerable talk that the Capitals, Wilson and the National Hockey League Players' Association may look to contest this suspension. There has thus far been no official appeal filled, but given that this boarding suspension does appear to be somewhat unprecedented I would not be surprised if an appeal is indeed filled sooner rather than later.

To be fair there are those who still argue that Wilson should not have been suspended at all. I personally have argued for years now that the NHL's Department of Player Safety factoring injuries into suspension lengths is a bush league way to police your game, and there's no convincing me that the seriousness of Carlo's injury did not weigh heavily in the decision to give Wilson 7 games.

The league itself opted not to suspended Wilson for an illegal check to the head, likely because his actions on the night did not meet the requirement as per the NHL's own rulebook, and instead suspended him under the boarding rules. Even then the league appeared to admit that this was a borderline suspension that was based on a number of factors cobbled together rather than a clear violation of a single rule.

"While there are aspects of this hit that may skirt the line between suspendable and not suspendable, it is the totality of the circumstances that cause this play to merit supplemental discipline."

I was very critical of the NHL's announcement last night, believing that they should have been far more firm in this decision one way or the other, and I feel like they have left the door open to an appeal here as a result.