Senators’ Hodgson to have hearing for boarding, charging Kings’ Clarke

The NHL Department of Player Safety announced on Friday that Ottawa Senators winger Hayden Hodgson will have a hearing for boarding and charging Los Angeles Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke during the Sens’ 6-5 overtime loss on Thursday.

The infraction occurred midway during the second period of the game. As the Senators were dumping the puck into the Kings’ zone on an offensive rush, Clarke skated towards the boards in an attempt to make a play on the puck and regain possession. In doing so, he turned towards the boards, which opened the door for Hodgson to hit him from behind. In addition to the boarding, Hodgson also began to build up momentum for the hit from the top of the faceoff circle, a clear charging infraction on the play.

As a result of the hit, Hodgson received a five-minute major penalty for boarding, as well as a 10-minute misconduct, and was ejected from the game. Kings’ center Erik Haula immediately responded to the hit and stuck up for Clarke by going after Hodgson, which resulted in a two-minute minor penalty for the Kings as well. Los Angeles also burned Hodgson and the Senators on the ensuing power play, as Artemi Panarin scored to give them a 5-1 lead, one they would blow in the third period before ultimately winning the game in overtime.

Also as a result of the hit, the Kings announced that Clarke was ruled out for the rest of the game with an upper-body injury. There’s currently been no further update on the defenseman’s status for Saturday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres.

Hodgson currently does not have a suspension history, something that may play in his favour during the hearing. That said, he does have a history with the NHL Department of Player Safety, especially for boarding, as he was fined for boarding Alex Newhook during a preseason game against the Montreal Canadiens in the 2025-26 season.

Hodgson has begun to develop a reputation as the type of player to wrack up penalty minutes, as while he only has 51 penalty minutes in 24 career NHL games (36 prior to Thursday’s game), he’s accumulated 489 penalty minutes in 183 AHL games over the past four seasons. He otherwise hasn’t been productive in his NHL career, as along with going pointless in five games this season, he hasn’t gotten a point in the NHL since April 9th, 2022.