NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly appeared on NHL Live Wednesday to outline the league's approach to the Slava Voynov situation - the same day Voynov's lawyer, Craig Renetzky, told Yahoo! Sports, per HNGN, that Voynov "clearly didn't hit" the woman in question.
Daly said that, based on the facts gathered by the NHL, it was an easy and necessary decision to suspend Voynov.
"Based on the facts that we had, which were different than the facts - everybody likes to draw parallels to the [Semyon] Varlamov situation - but the facts and circumstances in this case were different.
"We felt it was a fairly easy decision, no choice but to suspend the player and go through the process of trying to get to the bottom of exactly what happened and, obviously, handle it appropriately from there."
According to a report from The Hockey News, Los Angeles district attorneys want a "follow-up" from detectives in the case.
"Upon completion of the case review, the district attorney's office requested additional follow-up before making a determination on the filing of charges related to this investigation," Lt. Joe Hoffman said.
Earlier, a spokesperson for the Redondo Beach Police Department refuted the notion that no crime had been committed by Voynov.
"There was definitely a domestic violence incident that occurred and I believe the arrest was appropriate," Hoffman said. "Therefore, there is a necessity for us to prepare a case and present it to the District Attorney's office. What, if anything, happens at the District Attorney's office will dictate where we go from here."
In an email to The Hockey News, Daly said that it is not a given that, should the charges be dropped, that the league will reinstate Voynov in time to play in tonight's game against the Buffalo Sabres.
"No," Daly wrote. "I don't think that is fair to assume. We are certainly going to want to satisfy ourselves with respect to the facts and circumstances before any thought would be given to lifting the suspension."
