Ryan Hartman may be out $4,250 for flipping off Oilers forward Evander Kane but the situation is ending with a charitable twist thanks to Wild and hockey fans around the world.
Allie Cook is a Wild fan who found Hartman’s Venmo account and sent the forward $10 to go towards his NHL fine. Things picked up fast and soon hundreds of dollars were being sent Hartman’s way, including $200 from Kane’s estranged wife, Anna. The total had reached over $7,000 by Thursday afternoon.
Hartman’s salary this season is $1.1 million, so he can afford the meager fine. So with all this fresh cash in his Venmo account, he announced he would be donating everything he received by Friday night to Children’s Minnesota, a hospital in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Wow….overwhelmed by the amount of donations I have received to help pay for my fine. You fans are amazing. I will be paying for it with my own money, but wanted to let everyone know that any money sent to me by 7 pm on Friday will be donated to Children’s Minnesota.
— Ryan Hartman (@RHartzy18) April 14, 2022
He also encouraged fans to donate directly to the hospital.
“They’re great [fans],” Hartman said. “I wasn’t really expecting that but I think, as a team, we’ve been behind each other all year and the fans are also behind us from that aspect. We’re all in this together, so it was a pretty crazy day. As a team, we’ve stuck together and defended each other all year. And the fans are a part of that, so it was pretty cool to see the fans get behind us like that.”
With the Wild up 5-1 midway through the third period, it all kicked off with Mats Zuccarello taking exception to a bump by Kailer Yamamoto. Zuccarello responded by slashing the Oilers forward in the back of the leg. When Kirill Kaprizov skated over to engage Yamamoto, Kane made his way to the scene to push around the Wild forward. A big scrum ensued with Hartman repeatedly trying to get at Kane. The two eventually tied up, but couldn’t take part in a fight as the linesman was between them both.
Once they were separated and led to their respective penalty boxes, Hartman continued chirping at Kane and flashed his middle finger at him.
When asked after Tuesday’s game about the possibility of being fined for his gesture, Hartman said it would be “well worth it.”
Little did he know how the story of this incident would end. As of Friday morning, the Hartman “fine fund” was up to $20,000, according to Mike Russo.
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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.