![](http://images.tsn.ca/images/stories/20040310/bert_1828.jpg)
Canadian Press
8/8/2005 4:48:34 PM
NEW YORK (CP) - The NHL has reinstated Todd Bertuzzi.
The Vancouver Canucks star, who was suspended indefinitely by the NHL on March 8, 2004, for attacking Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore, is "immediately eligible" to return to the ice, the NHL announced Monday.
Bertuzzi was suspended for the remaining 13 regular-season games of the 2003-04 season and the playoffs, which lasted only seven games for Vancouver after the Canucks lost to Calgary in the first round. But Bertuzzi's suspension also cost him a chance for play for Canada in the September 2004 World Cup of Hockey and the May 2005 IIHF world hockey championship. The IIHF respected the NHL's suspension and wouldn't let him play in Europe during the lockout.
The suspension also cost Bertuzzi $501,926.39 US in salary.
"A total suspension of approximately seventeen calendar months from the date of the incident is the appropriate sanction to impose in this case given the nature and severity of the act in question and the overall totality of circumstances," commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement Monday.
"Subject to the continuing terms of the conditional discharge in Mr. Bertuzzi's criminal case and the`probationary period' which this decision imposes, Mr. Bertuzzi is immediately eligible for reinstatement for play in the NHL."
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