Gary Bettman under fire for comments on ongoing 2018 World Junior trial

On Wednesday, ahead of the puck drop for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman held a press conference and discussed various subjects: from the ongoing CBA talks to the tax differential issue and then the state of a potential expansion process. While he pretty much repeated the same answers given a few weeks back when the Conference Finals kicked off, Bettman got a lot of reactions for what he said about the ongoing sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team.

At this time, the five defence teams are getting ready to make their closing arguments on Monday, June 9. The Crown will then make its arguments before the defence has an opportunity to respond to the Crown. The closing arguments are expected to take a week.

Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, Alex Formenton and Callan Foote are charged with sexually assaulting a woman in McLeod’s hotel room in the early morning hours of June 19, 2018, following a Hockey Canada ring ceremony to celebrate their 2018 world junior championship months earlier. The woman is referred to as E.M. in court documents and her identity is protected by a publication ban. McLeod faces a second charge of being a party to the act.

When asked about the trial, Bettman stated:

“We are not going to make any comments on what’s going on. We’re going to let the judicial process do what is has to do. We want to respect the process … what has been alleged is abhorrent, disgusting, and shouldn’t be tolerated.”

Fans immediately reacted to Bettman’s comments saying how he should not have talked about the allegations, especially using the words ‘abhorrent’ and ‘disgusting’.

The players have all pleaded not guilty. Their lawyers have alleged that everything that happened in McLeod’s hotel room was consensual.

The statement by Bettman speaks volume and got fans wondering what he truly meant by it.

Some fans were also quick to point out that Bettman recently allowed Joel Quenneville to return to the NHL as he was hired as the new head coach of the Anaheim Ducks. This came as the end of a long deliberation by the NHL after Quenneville resigned in disgrace from the Florida Panthers in late October 2021 after being implicated in the Chicago Blackhawks’ cover up of the Brad Aldrich sex scandal in 2010. As you may remember, the victim, Kyle Beach, was a former 11th overall pick of the Blackhawks in 2008, and alleged that the team’s former video coach Aldrich sexually assaulted him during the 2010 season. Beach said that the abuse he suffered was an open secret in the dressing room, and that the team’s veteran players knew and did nothing. Furthermore Beach explained how he notified then Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman and head coach Joel Quenneville of the alleged abuse and neither took action.

As for the 2018 World Juniors trial, the judge is not expected to immediately announce verdicts, per TSN. It could take weeks or months before the judge finishes writing her reasons for her judgments. At that point, the defendants will be notified to return to court for the judge to read her verdicts.