Ducks center Antoine Vermette suspended 10 games for abuse of official

The Ducks will be without one of their best faceoff men, a trusted veteran, as they begin a long-awaited home stint.

Center Antoine Vermette was suspended 10 games for abuse of an official, the NHL announced Thursday, but Vermette will appeal the first suspension of his 12-year career. He will have an in-person hearing with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, followed by a hearing with an independent arbitrator. Bettman could then sustain, increase or decrease the suspension.

If the 10-game ban holds, Vermette would forfeit $97,222.22 in salary and be eligible to return on March 12.

Vermette slashed a linesman on the back of the legs after a faceoff against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday and was subsequently ejected. According to the NHL rulebook, under Category II of Rule 40.3, an automatic 10-game penalty is given to “any player who deliberately applies physical force to an official in any manner.”

The Ducks were tight-lipped about the incident Thursday, but the feeling was that it was quite out of character for Vermette.

“He’s a very nice guy, but I don’t think it’s for me to say,” Jakob Silfverberg said.

Vermette has not spoken publicly about the incident and the Ducks will not comment until the process is complete, a team spokesman said.

The Ducks prepared for his absence Thursday, with Ondrej Kase in Vermette’s place on a line with Ryan Getzlaf, and Silfverberg shifted to left wing. Nick Ritchie practiced in Vermette’s spot on the second power-play unit.

Vermette leads the NHL with a 62.4% faceoff winning percentage, in addition to being a smart, detailed forward with veteran savvy at 34.

“He’s very important in a lot of the little things of the game — his leadership, some of the qualities that he brings into the locker room … his experience goes a long way, too,” Cam Fowler said. “A lot of things don’t show up on the score sheet.”

Young players have ably filled roles with the Ducks this season but Coach Randy Carlyle was cautious about being ready to carry on.

“You never really know it until you live it,” Carlyle said. “The proof will be in the pudding, I guess, as they all say. It’s all results orientated. The record will speak for itself.”

Carlyle kept his line of Ritchie, Corey Perry and Rickard Rakell intact in practice, as he likes Rakell at center. The biggest wrinkle would be the right-handed Silfverberg’s moving from right wing to left. He said he hasn’t played that side in about five years but liked the possibilities.

“I think I’m pretty comfortable with it,” Silfverberg said. “We talked about it a little bit and, I said a lot of times, you get mixed up [on the left side] anyways, so it’s not like you’re completely clueless.”

Corey Tropp is available as a fourth-line forward. He’s played 148 NHL games but last played at this level in 2015, for the Columbus Blue Jackets, so he’d welcome his next turn.

“This is what you work for,” Tropp said. “It would be awesome. It’s been almost a year and a half, so it would be real exciting. It’s the best league in the world for a reason.”

New facility

The Ducks broke ground Thursday on a new public skating facility at the Great Park in Irvine. The 280,000-square-foot structure with four sheets of ice is scheduled to open in 2018.

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Update: Ducks defenseman Sami Vatanen (knee injury) will be re-evaluated Friday, Carlyle said. Florida has scored 18 goals in four games since Jonathan Huberdeau made his season debut in a 2-1 win against the Ducks on Feb.3. Huberdeau has at least one point in all four of his games, including two game-winning goals.

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