Wild's Ryan Hartman Rips Into Jets' Cole Perfetti While Denying He ever Said High-stick was Intentional

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TJ Tucker
January 5, 2024 (10:45)

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Ryan Hartman of the Minnesota Wild is speaking out after being accused of telling Winnipeg's Cole Perfetti that he high-sticked him on purpose.

It seems we have a war of words brewing between players with the Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild. And, the Wild's Ryan Hartman is not too pleased with the Jets Cole Perfetti for blabbing about what was said in the ice.

For context, following a game between Minnesota and Winnipeg over the weekend, perfetti was smacked in the face by Hartman's stick while the two were taking a faceoff.

Following the game, Perfetti told reporters Hartman told him the high-stick was intentional, and retaliation for a hit on teammate Kirill Kaprizov in the previous game that Perfetti was not involved in.

Now, in an interview with The Athletic, Hartman denies ever telling Perfetti the high-stick was intentional.

"I'm trying to be better on draws. The kid comes in with his head really low, and I'm trying to be hard on the puck and hard on him. So you can take that any way you want."

"I'm not sorry he got hit in the face. It happens on faceoffs. And as far as what I said, that I'm not going to say it wasn't on purpose, if I can say something to get them fired up and get them to retaliate, I'm not going to apologize to the kid or say it was an accident. I'm going to try to fire them up."

Hartman also didn't appreciate the youngster talking publicly about what is said on the ice.

"If everything that was said on the ice was released to the media, there'd be a lot of people in this league in trouble. I don't know, I guess we're in a different day and age where kids talk to people about what's said on the ice. You'd think things would stay on the ice."

According to The Athletic, Hartman and the Wild have video and audio of the incident, as the Jets sent it to them and asked if they could release it to the public. The answer from both was no, and Hartman said the NHLPA also got involved saying the audio couldn't be released. As for his name being dragged through the mud, Hartman said he doesn't "give a s--t."