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With today’s press conference from the London Police looming large around the 2018 Hockey Canada sexual assault scandal, more information is going to come to light that has been speculated for months now.
At the NHL All-Star game this past weekend, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman held his media availability to discuss a wide range of topics including the ongoing case. The most recent 32 Thoughts episode took some time to touch on those comments and highlight the fact that what he said helps clarify a lot of information about the communication and timeline around the Calgary Flames and Dillon Dube.
This gave a lot more insight into how the Calgary Flames handled Dillon Dube as well as how other teams handled their players.
Notes on the investigation
The Flames organization took a wealth of criticism for granting Dube a leave of absence from the team due to mental health, just days before it was announced that the five players would be charged in the case. The link between the Flames granting the leave and the pending announcement looked to be more than just a coincidence.
Many thought that the team was giving Dube a softer way of dealing with the situation, which angered most of the fanbase after the team had handled the Oliver Kylington leave with such grace, but Elliotte Friedman surmised that Bettman vindicated the Flames:
“The second thing that Bettman said that confirmed a lot of things that I believed was that the teams had no idea what was going on. There were times over the past couple of years I would ask teams about this and they would say: “we honestly don’t know,” and I didn’t know whether or not to believe it. I came to believe it but in the beginning, like a lot of people I didn’t believe it, but Bettman did confirm that which is that they kept the teams in the dark about what they learned, and I know that bothered teams. It bothered some of the teams, it frustrated some teals to a great deal.
Look at Calgary, a week ago they allowed Dube a mental leave and then two days later Carter Hart goes on mental leave and we start to realize what is happening and the Flames took a lot of criticism for it. But based on what Bettman said it’s pretty obvious here the Calgary Flames did not know how close this was getting or how serious this situation… or even more how more serious this situation has become. I know the teams were really bothered by it, but Bettman clearly felt this was the best way to do it. It just confirmed that a lot of these teams were in the dark.”
– Elliotte Friedman, 32 Thoughts
There were lots of people that thought this way too, but based on all of the evidence presented it’s highly likely the Flames had no idea this was happening. Lawyers for the players, the NHL, and all other players involved kept this information very close to the chest and this was clearly a reason why the reports were never released.
This situation just continues to get worse and we will continue to cover based on any new information.
