On Friday, Chicago co-owner Rocky Wirtz petitioned the Hockey Hall of Fame to have Aldrich’s name blotted out from the Stanley Cup as part of the Hawks’ 2010 championship team. More and more as this story progresses, it feels like buddies trying to absolve buddies, and a business desperately trying to prevent its brand from being permanently soiled. So many people - 37, we are told - refused to co-operate with the “independent” investigation into the allegations that it’s pretty clear not all the information is on the table. This decision was made by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, an intriguing situation given that the NHL oversees all clubs and shares responsibility to some degree for what happened. The coach at the time Beach was assaulted, Joel Quenneville, has also been permitted to resign his post with the Florida Panthers, also in disgrace.Īnother former member of the Hawks front office, Winnipeg GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, has been exonerated and will be permitted to continue working for the Jets. The general manager, Stan Bowman, has been permitted to resign in disgrace. What we do know is that the Chicago Blackhawks have acknowledged some element of either wrongdoing as it relates to Beach, a former prospect, or at the very least regret in terms of how he was treated and how the organization failed to protect him from sexual abuse, allegedly at the hands of another team employee, Brad Aldrich. It’s also fair to say that we are really no closer to any true resolution of this difficult episode in hockey history, and that more and more questions seem to pop up with every passing moment.
As with all stories of this type, every day seems to come with more news, accompanied with new issues to unpack.įriday, folks, was no exception. We can all agree the Kyle Beach abuse story is complicated and multi-layered.