Yep, definitely worthy of the benefit of the doubt. Work ethic was never an issue for Ovechkin... leadership / defense, sure. (until last year)
Mad respect to Trotz though for drawing the line and sticking to it. And he went out of his way to say "it was an honest mistake."
AKA, clearly no big deal, moving on, that's not who he is, but rules are rules.
Nothing to see here... for now.
“We have a shot at a wild card right now. But it is not a probability that we're going to win a wild card.” -2022 Trade Deadline
"It's liftoff from here" - after selling on 2022
"We're on a slight upward arc" - Winter Meetings 2022
"I think it's really hard to sit there and chart a course and say, 'We're likely to win the division.'" - Winter Meetings 2022
Mike Elias