When Rielly was offered an in-person suspension hearing, it was thought that the Department of Player Safety would suspend him for at least six games, using
David Perron's suspension earlier this year as precedent. However because Rielly was given just 5 games instead, he cannot make an appeal to an independent arbitrator - it will have to be directly to Gary Bettman. It's extremely unlikely that Bettman will reduce the suspension or show any sort of difference from Player Safety.