Ian Cole responds to allegations of sexual assault.

Veteran National Hockey League defenseman Ian Cole has been the target of very serious accusations over the weekend, and now for the first time since those accusations have been made he is speaking out in his defense.

Cole has released a statement through his agent and for the sake of preserving the integrity of that message we will share it here with you, unedited and in full:

Statement from lan Cole:
I take the allegations made against me today in an anonymous tweet very seriously. I completely deny these allegations and will fully cooperate with the NHL and the Tampa Bay Lightning, their officials and legal departments in the forthcoming investigation. I look forward to clearing my name and demonstrating to the NHL and the Tampa Bay Lightning that these allegations are unfounded. I will have no further comment until the NHL's investigation concludes.

Cole's response comes after an anonymous user on Twitter, identified only by the username Emily Smith, levied extremely serious accusations against Cole. Those accusations include what amounts to grooming, sexual abuse, and the sexual assault of a minor so this is no small matter, you can read the full details in our earlier report on this matter here.

Of course these are only allegations at this time, and Cole has now made it clear that he intends to fight those allegations every step of the way.

This story is far from over.