(WGR 550) – National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman spoke to the media on Monday on his response to how the Chicago Blackhawks handled Kyle Beach and his accused abuser Brad Aldrich.
“As I told Kyle, I’m sorry for what he’s been through and thought he’s been courageous this past week," Bettman said in his opening statement. "We discussed the path forward with him involving efforts to confront abuse, and we also offered to him and his family our resources for counseling.”
In his statement, Bettman put down a timeline of when the NHL was made aware of these allegations.
“Until last Monday, we had not seen the report in any form," Bettman explained. "Other than the allegations in the lawsuit, we had no other knowledge and we were waiting for the findings of the Jenner and Black investigation.”
After reading the report, Bettman said he needed to deal with the Chicago Blackhawks first.
“It’s clear what happened was inappropriate," he said. "It was wrong on every level, and it was not handled correctly by the Blackhawks organization.”
Bettman said on Monday the Blackhawks were fined $2 million for not taking the proper actions at the time this incident first came to light.
“People can, and have debated the amount of the fine, but it was substantial by any measure, and acknowledges that the organization failed to act appropriately," Bettman explained.
“The fine sends as intended a message to all clubs as to how I view their organizational responsibility.”
To put this in perspective, the New Jersey Devils were fined $3 million for salary cap violations, and the Arizona Coyotes lost draft picks for improperly working out prospects.
“Different context, different facts. This makes clear that the way the Blackhawks organization handled this matter was not appropriate, even though that ownership was not aware,” Bettman said.
Bettman also spoke to, then, Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville.
"Suffice it to say that whatever conversations I had with Joel or I suppose [Florida Panthers owner] Vinny Viola had with Joel, Joel ultimately concluded that the most sensible course of action for him was to resign," he said.
Bettman added that this is a decision he agrees with.
Quenneville coached the Panthers the night before his meeting with Bettman and was protected by his general manager Bill Zito from fulfilling his media obligations after the game.
"I suppose people will differ on that point and I understand that, but I wanted to make sure that no one, including coach Quenneville, could say that I had prejudged him,” Bettman said. “It may not optically been the best look [letting him coach Wednesday]. I’m more concerned with the substance than the look."
Bettman knows that we all need to do better. He said he’s going to be talking to others on the matter.
“In light of what’s transpired, I’m going to seek assistance from outside professionals to evaluate the league’s efforts on these matters to make sure they’re not only adequate, but also most effective,” said Bettman.
While these incidents with Beach happened more 10 years ago, Bettman feels the NHL has evolved since then.
“From ownership on down, all of our organizations for some period of time understand what we believe to be acceptable and not acceptable," he said. "An organization that is suppressing information of improper activity understands that ultimately, there’s going to be a consequence to that.”
