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Nazem Kadri offered some free, yet sound, advice for Matthew Tkachuk: “Wake up.”

The Maple Leafs centre knows of what he speaks when the issue is on-ice discipline, or lack of it, and specifically, what the young Calgary Flames forward is experiencing.

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Kadri lived it, has matured, and has come out of the other side a better player.

“I went through the same thing, so I understand what he’s going through,” Kadri said after the Leafs practised on Friday at the MasterCard Centre.

“There comes a time where you just have to mature. You can still play on the edge and play on that fine line, but you can’t be stupid, and that was just stupid.

“I have done some stupid things in my career and, looking back on it, you wish you could take it back. But at the end of the day, he’s a young kid and he will figure it out.”

The stupid thing done by the 19-year-old Tkachuk was the spear on Leafs forward Matt Martin during the game between Toronto and Calgary on Wednesday night. It had no bearing on the outcome — though that doesn’t matter — and Martin was unaware of the spear. Tkachuk’s penalty was a one-game suspension levied by the National Hockey League, causing him to miss the Flames’ game in Montreal on Thursday night.

Tkachuk already has been suspended three times by the NHL. It’s the same number Kadri has been suspended by the league for a total of 11 games; Kadri’s most recent suspension was in April 2016, when he cross-checked Detroit’s Luke Glendening and sat for four games.

Kadri had another least-favourite incident, if you will.