Report Alleged Assaults of Blackhawks Players ‘an open secret’

The alleged sexual assault of two former Chicago Blackhawks players was “an open secret” among staff both within and outside the team’s hockey department, a former team marketing official said in an interview with TSN.

 

The official said he was told by Blackhawks assistant trainer Jeff Thomas during the summer of 2010 that then-team video coach Brad Aldrich had allegedly sexually assaulted two players. The official asked for anonymity because he still works in the pro hockey industry and fears repercussions from the National Hockey League.

 

“Brad would routinely befriend young interns and invite them to his apartment in Chicago to watch March Madness basketball and other sports,” the marketing official said. “I was told to steer clear of him because he had tried something at his apartment on a few players. This was not something that only a few people knew about. The entire training staff, a lot of people knew...This was an open secret.”

 

The allegations against the Blackhawks went public in May after a former player filed a lawsuit in Chicago against the franchise. That unnamed player, identified as “John Doe (1)” in court documents, alleges that he reported the abuse to the team and that it was covered up. The player also alleges that Aldrich threatened him via text messages and other communications against making a complaint.

 

A second lawsuit filed in May by a former Michigan high school hockey player, identified in court documents as “John Doe (2)” alleges the Blackhawks covered up the abuse of two players and gave Aldrich a letter of reference when he left the team in the summer of 2010. That letter gave him the opportunity to go on and find other victims, the lawsuit alleges.

 

Aldrich was convicted of abusing a then-17-year-old hockey player in Houghton, Mich., in 2013. A year earlier, Aldrich resigned from his position as director of hockey operations at Miami University on Nov. 27, 2012, “under suspicion of unwanted touching of a male adult,” the university’s attorney told police, according to police records obtained by TSN.

 

The NHL also has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

 

News of the purported May 2010 meeting has ricocheted through the hockey world and attracted the attention of groups who advocate on behalf of sexual abuse survivors.

 

Former NHL player and sexual abuse survivor Sheldon Kennedy said the NHL’s refusal to comment publicly on the case and commit to an independent investigation of the Blackhawks management was “cowardly.”

 

“It’s cowardly to not address this publicly and hide in your office,” Kennedy in an interview. “This is about being a leader. The NHL should stand up and address this. Do everything they can to find out the truth and right the wrongs. …There must be accountability for people who know and do nothing. Where is the accountability from the Blackhawks for what happened to that high school boy in Michigan?”

 

https://www.tsn.ca/alleged-assaults-of-chicago-blackhawks-players-an-open-secret-source-1.1659115

I don’t understand the coverup. Why?

Yea this is pretty bad. Don't get wtf the blackhawks are doing in trying to sweep this under the rug.

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Omg @ the tweets from right now.

 

I hope so many people on that team and in that organization fucking burn alive

Yeah, this is fucking horrible. Like it's hard to put into words how revolting this is.

 

 

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Whoa!!!

there's no way players were getting treated that way on the ice, and guys like Toews, Kane, Keith and the rest of the leadership of that group weren't at least aware of it, if not complicit. way to let your own teammate get harassed and abused for being the victim of rape.

 

everyone in management needs to be banned from the league for allowing this PoS to not only do this to their own players, but for paving the way for him to victimize children after the fact

I keep reading more and more about this story and I'm just angrier and more disturbed by it.

 

The Blackhawks were aware and complicit in their silence to protect the abuser, and aware and complicit in their abuse of the victim. It's heinous.

there's no way players were getting treated that way on the ice, and guys like Toews, Kane, Keith and the rest of the leadership of that group weren't at least aware of it, if not complicit. way to let your own teammate get harassed and abused for being the victim of rape.

 

everyone in management needs to be banned from the league for allowing this PoS to not only do this to their own players, but for paving the way for him to victimize children after the fact

 

 

They knew. And the abuse went on for years. YEARS.

there's no way players were getting treated that way on the ice, and guys like Toews, Kane, Keith and the rest of the leadership of that group weren't at least aware of it, if not complicit. way to let your own teammate get harassed and abused for being the victim of rape.

 

everyone in management needs to be banned from the league for allowing this PoS to not only do this to their own players, but for paving the way for him to victimize children after the fact

 

They knew. And the abuse went on for years. YEARS.

Keith was 26,27,28ish when this happened.

 

But Toews and Kane were 19, 20, 21ish... I wouldn't expect them to be the ones standing up and saying something. You have to remember, hockey players grow up in a culture where if you mouth off or make a stink about anything, you put your playing time and career at risk. The culture around this type of stuff was also wildly different 12 years ago.

 

The entire team was really young, guys like Hossa and Madden are the ones I'd be looking at along with Keith.

Keith was 26,27,28ish when this happened.

 

But Toews and Kane were 19, 20, 21ish... I wouldn't expect them to be the ones standing up and saying something. You have to remember, hockey players grow up in a culture where if you mouth off or make a stink about anything, you put your playing time and career at risk. The culture around this type of stuff was also wildly different 12 years ago.

 

The entire team was really young, guys like Hossa and Madden are the ones I'd be looking at along with Keith.

 

didn't to the age math, Good point. I rescind that opinion on Toews and Kane then.

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This is shameful and disgusting.

 

Omg who would think Kane would be involved?!?

Knowledge and involvement are not the same.

 

We already said the timeline matches. A 20 year old raising a flag about that... Not sure many would.

This is insanity to me. I don't wanna come off as a sexist here, but, the whole shitshow with USA gymnastics I get. Its a disgusting, piece of shit, old, perverted man preying on young women who prance around half naked as they perform. And I get that young women might be afraid to blow the whistle so to speak. This though? A bunch of young men putting up with this? And grown men telling them to deal with it? What in the actual fuck? I know, I wasn't in the situation so I couldn't fathom the experiences. But as a man how do you let this happen to yourself? As a group of men how do you not smoke this whole thing out? Let's take Kane for example. Ok he was "too young to do anything about it" when it first started. Didn't wanna ruin his career before it got going. I get the politics side of this debacle. But once he became a superstar, what, 2 years later?...OPEN YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!!! Again, I know, I was never a part of something like this, thank fucking goodness, so I cannot understand the dynamics...but come on here.

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