Penguins face suit in another sex scandal, Wild GM Guerin in trouble

We cannot say this is another fallout of the Chicago Blackhawks sex assault scandal, but this is another scandal that has taken place in Pittsburgh.

You may remember that back in December 2020, TSN’s Rick Westhead revealed how former Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, the Pens’ farm club, assistant coach Jarrod Skalde had filed a lawsuit against then WBS Penguins head coach Clark Donatelli for an alleged sexual assault on Jarrod’s wife Erin Skalde while the three of them were together in a car during aa road trip to Providence, R.I. earlier in 2020. As they were headed back to their hotel, Jarrod alleged that Donatelli sexually assaulted Erin when they were briefly alone, first putting his arm around her, calling her “sexy” and pulling her close to him. Jarrod said that seven months later, when the incident was brought to the attention of Bill Guerin, who told him to keep quiet about the alleged assault. Guerin was Pittsburgh’s assistant GM at the time and included in his duties was running the Penguins’ minor-league affiliate.

On Friday, a federal lawsuit filed by the Skalde accuses the Penguins of negligently retaining a coach who sexually assaulted and harassed her and then retaliating against him for reporting the incident. Jarrod and Erin Skalde sued the Penguins nearly a year ago in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, alleging former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach Clark Donatelli molested Erin Skalde during an outing on a road trip in 2018. 

Guerin, who is not only the GM of the Wild, but also the Assistant GM of that USA team for Beijing, could be asked to step down. The GM, Stan Bowman, resigned from that job and from his job as head of hockey operations for Chicago earlier this week amid the fallout from the Blackhawks scandal.

This is what the lawsuit reveals:

- Jarrod Skalde in May 2019 confronted Donatelli, who told him he was too drunk to remember and later apologized. They say after Erin Skalde confronted Donatelli, he pledged to come forward to Guerin but never did so.

- Jarrod Skalde said he ended up reporting the incident to Guerin in June 2019 and that the GM assured him he would take care of the situation. Donatelli resigned later that month.

- The Skalde allege that current Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who was GM for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and assistant GM for the Penguins at the time, asked Jarrod Skalde to keep the reason for Donatelli’s termination quiet and that the team punished Skalde for reporting the assault and later terminated his position under the guise of pandemic-related staff cuts.

This will under a thorough investigation, and you have to believe that after the failure to help Kyle Beach with his assault with the Blackhawks, this will be closely looked at.