Hawks gave Aldrich 2nd day with the Stanley Cup, even after conviction for sexual assault

TSN’s Ryan Rishaug has just reported some disturbing news in link with the sexual misconduct scandal which happened back in 2010 amongst the Chicago Blackhawks. It has just been confirmed that Brad Aldrich, the former Hawks’ video coach, who assaulted Kyle Beach and another player during his time with the team, was given not one, but two opportunities to celebrate with the trophy in his home state, the second time coming while he was on probation and a registered sex offender in Michigan.

Rishaug explains: [Aldrich] had the Cup at his workplace in Calumet, Mich., in October of 2016, two years after being released from prison.

A person familiar with the story said Aldrich had approximately 20 minutes for employees of OcuGlass to pose for pictures with hockey’s most cherished trophy. Aldrich posted one of those pictures to OcuGlass’ Twitter account, which has recently been made private.

The Cup was taken to OcuGlass by a representative of the Hockey Hall of Fame, the official keeper of the Cup.

The HHOF was not aware at the time of Aldrich’s criminal past.

“No staff member or any other individual working on behalf of the Hockey Hall of Fame knew of Brad Aldrich’s criminal past and transgressions in Chicago until media reports surfaced in June 2021,” said Hockey Hall of Fame spokesperson Kelly Masse.

Aldrich’s name was crossed off the Stanley Cup on Oct. 31st, following the scandal made public in Chicago. But after his time with the Blackhawks, he went on to coach a high school team in Houghton and in February of 2014 was sentenced to nine months in jail after pleading guilty to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in a case involving one of his teenage players. He served five months in prison before being released in July of 2014 and put on five years’ probation.

This is just another story that gets added to the tragedy…