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The NHL handed out the longest suspension in league history just before the 2015/16 regular season faced off on October 7 when it handed out a 41-game ban to forward Raffi Torres of the San Jose Sharks. Torres was nailed with the half-season long suspension for an illegal check to the head of Jakob Silfverberg in a preseason contest. The National Hockey League Players’ Association stated that Torres won’t be appealing the ban and the player then apologized for his actions after the punishment was doled out.

Torres hit Silverberg at the 12:45 mark of the first period in their meeting in Anaheim on October 3 and he received a match penalty for the incident. According to the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the players, Torres won’t be paid while suspended and this means he will lose $440,860.29 in pay based on his average yearly salary. The money will be forwarded to the NHL’s Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund. Torres is used to handing over his paycheques though as this is the fifth time he’s been suspended by the league.

Torres was suspended for 25 games back in the first round of the 2011/12 postseason when he played for the Arizona Coyotes. Torres was banned for a high hit on Marian Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks, but for some reason the NHL knocked four games off of the ban and he ended up serving 21 contests. He didn’t learn his lesson as he was suspended in the playoffs again the next year when he hit the Los Angeles Kings’ Jared Stoll in the head. Torres was playing with the Sharks by then and was suspended for half a dozen games for the illegal check. In addition, he was banned for a pair of games in April of 2011 and January of 2012 for illegal checks.

The 34-year-old Torres of Toronto, Ontario was drafted fifth overall by the New York Islanders in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft from the Brampton Battalion of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). He played 31 games with the Islanders before being shipped out to the Edmonton Oilers. Torres has also played with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, Arizona, and San Jose. He’s scored 137 goals and added 123 assists for 260 points in 635 career regular-season games and has added 11 goals and 17 assists in 68 playoff games.

Oddly enough, Torres hasn’t really racked up a ton of penalty minutes during his NHL career as he’s served just 497 minutes in the regular season and 28 minutes in postseason action. His highest penalty minute count for a season is 88, which came in the 2006/07 campaign as a member of the Edmonton Oilers. However, Torres will go down in history as one of the NHL’s most-suspended players ever.