By: Maeve Hushman, Staff Writer
*Content warning: this article discusses sexual assault and homophobic harassment*
In May 2021, former Chicago Blackhawks player, Kyle Beach, filed a lawsuit against the Blackhawks organization over the alleged mishandling of his sexual assault at the hands of Brad Aldrich, a former Blackhawks video coach. The lawsuit claims that the Blackhawks knew about Aldrich’s predatory behavior but failed to investigate, report, or take punitive action. The Blackhawks hired law firm Jenner and Block to open an independent investigation into those allegations. The report that resulted from the investigation was made public on October 26th. The investigation and subsequent report confirmed the allegations made by Beach. Aldrich sexually assaulted Beach (Beach recently identified himself, but is known as John Doe in the report) and when the team leadership was made aware, they chose to forgo any punitive actions, allowing Aldrich to resign and move on from the Blackhawks without a fuss.
The investigation was independent and included the interviews of 139 individuals including staff and players. The Jenner and Block investigation report is 107 pages long, which I read in its entirety and it is horrifying. It is very graphic and the occurrences it reveals are disgusting. It includes more allegations against Aldrich (specifically from another Black Ace player known as Black Ace 1) and more accounts of employees reporting Aldrich’s behavior to higher ups to no avail. I encourage everyone who cares even the slightest bit about hockey to watch the interview of Beach with Rick Westhead of TSN and at least try to read the report (trigger warning for graphic descriptions of sexual assault). If you can’t read the report then take the time to watch the initial Blackhawks press conference where the findings are revealed.
The report states that, “Later on May 23, within an hour after the Blackhawks won the playoff game that secured their place in the Stanley Cup Finals, five members of senior management (then-President John McDonough, MacIsaac, General Manager Stan Bowman, then-Executive Vice President Jay Blunk, and then-Assistant General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff), along with then-Head Coach Joel Quenneville, and Gary, met to discuss what had been learned about Aldrich and John Doe.” All of these power brokers on the Blackhawks were informed of the situation, but no action was taken because the team had just made the finals: “Bowman recalled that during the meeting, McDonough and Quenneville made comments about the challenge of getting to the Stanley Cup Finals and a desire to focus on the team and the playoffs.” The priority of the Blackhawks wasn’t the safety of their players, justice, or accountability, but winning. They violated their own corporate sexual assault policy, the report states, which dictates that reports of sexual harassment/ assault should be investigated “promptly and thoroughly”. McDonough and the members of the Blackhawks front office/coaching staff failed to initiate an investigation or even contact Human resources until June 14.
During that time, Aldrich, while at a Stanley cup celebration party, sexually assaulted a 22-year-old NHL intern. Eventually Aldrich was confronted and instead of facing an investigation he resigned, keeping his Stanley Cup ring, Stanley Cup day, and cup bonus, as well as allowing him to get a new job outside the Blackhawks. The Blackhawks never reported the assault to police and never investigated his actions. Aldrich went on to coach both at Miami University in Ohio and Houghton High School in Michigan. While coaching at Houghton High School, he sexually assaulted a student. In 2013, he was finally arrested and pleaded guilty to fourth degree criminal sexual conduct involving a minor. That student has also filed a lawsuit alleging that the Blackhawks provided a letter of recommendation to Aldrich which allowed him to get both jobs at Miami University and Houghton High School all while knowing that Aldrich had a pattern of predatory and illegal behavior.
After the assault, Kyle Beach became the victim of homophobic slurs and bullying by other players on the Chicago Blackhawks. Beach told TSN reporter Rick Westhead that, “everyone in the locker room knew about it.” That indicates that members of that 2010 Blackhawks team were fully aware of the assault but did not report it. This also serves as an indictment of former leadership paragon, longtime Hawks captain, Jonathan Toews. How can anyone claim that Toews is a good leader when he actively allowed the homophobic harassment of a victim of sexual assault? The statements both Patrick Kane (another 2010 Hawk) and Toews gave were horrible to say the least. They took no accountability and directly called complicit parties “good people”. For all hockey claims to be about the team, Toews certainly didn’t care about Beach, a very young teammate, nor did the rest of the room. Toews is a bad leader and captain; he does not deserve the C on his sweater and should be stripped of his captaincy immediately. Toews, Ducan Keith and Kane (current players that were part of that 2010 team) have to answer for not only their lies but for how they allowed the abuse to occur in their own locker room. The same goes for members of that 2010 team who continue to work in hockey in some capacity. The executives and players knew, both should be held accountable for their inaction and complicity.
Stan Bowman and every member of the 2010 Chicago Blackhawks management still with the team have stepped down or been fired. Bowman also stepped down from his role as GM of the US Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey team. The Blackhawks were fined $2 million by the NHL for "the organization's inadequate internal procedures and insufficient and untimely response in the handling of matters related to former video coach Brad Aldrich's employment with the Club and ultimate departure in 2010," (it should be noted that the Devils received a $3 million fine for salary cap circumvention in 2014). However, Joel Quenneville and Kevin Cheveldayoff are both still employed outside of the Blackhawks. Quenneville coaches the currently undefeated (as of 10/28) Florida Panthers and Cheveldayoff remains the General Manager of the Winnipeg Jets. Both men claimed not to know about the assault until this summer when the media reported about it. But the Jenner and Block report confirmed that Quenneville and Cheveldayoff were both very aware of Aldrich’s assault on Beach in 2010.So both men lied, they knew about the allegations and failed to take action.
The Jenner and Block report is even more damning of Quenneville. It alleges that concerns put forth by Quenneville about disrupting team chemistry ahead of the cup final contributed to the Blackhawks lack of action on Aldrich. The report states that, “Bowman recalled that, after learning of the incident, Quenneville shook his head and said that it was hard for the team to get to where they were, and they could not deal with this issue now.” In the meeting, then Team President McDonough recalled that Quenneville seemed “agitated”. So, not only did Quenneville lie about knowing about the assault of Beach but he might have actively encouraged the team to forgo punitive action. Aldrich was a member of Quenneville’s coaching staff, meaning he directly reported to Quenneville. Quenneville also wrote a positive performance review of Aldrich allegedly on June 29th 2010 (I use the word allegedly since he never signed the performance review). Quenneville in that review, written after Aldrich resigned and the assault was made known to Quenneville, writes of Aldrich, “Aldrich did a great job for the Coaching staff in preparing us for all of our meetings and coordinating several tasks that we forward his way. Brad has several people relying on him at the same moment and has a way of deflecting and accommodating everyone at once… Congrats on winning the Stanley Cup!” He failed to mention Aldrich’s sexual assault of Beach or even hint at his other inappropriate behaviors toward players/employees all of which were known to Quenneville and the organization at the time.
Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, says he plans to meet with Quenneville and Cheveldayoff to determine their punishments soon. These actions should cost both Quenneville and Cheveldayoff their jobs. Everyone involved in this situation should never be allowed to work in the NHL or hockey ever again. The game should have no place for coaches and management who care about wins over people. Giving justice to a victim of sexual assault was less important to them than the cup. That mindset should have no place in the NHL or in the sport of hockey all together. In a culture that has already proven to care more about winning than people, will Quenneville, who is currently coaching an undefeated team, actually be fired and face consequences for his actions? That remains to be seen. I will say this, if Quenneville and Cheveldayoff are actually decent people and are truly remorseful for their actions, they will step down regardless. If both men stay working in their current positions, or even continue to work in hockey at all, it will be an indictment of the NHL, hockey culture, and their character.
Earlier I wrote about the Blackhawks playing against the Avalanche in the Avalanche’s home opener. I failed to mention these allegations in that article. At the time it seemed like a very big bomb to drop in the middle of a somewhat less serious piece focused around the Avalanche’s play. I recognize that I was wrong not to bring it up. The Blackhawks organization and those in positions of power during Beach’s assault should have this haunt them. Toews, Quenneville, Cheveldayoff, Bowman, and more should have to answer for this and until they do, every time the Blackhawks or any of those men are discussed, this report should be too.
Kyle Beach was incredibly brave coming forward to share his story and to make these events known. His courage as well as the tireless work of journalists Katie Strang and Rick Westhead who have been covering this story from the beginning should be admired. Beach plays in Germany now, and says that now that the world knows he is telling the truth he can begin the healing process. He has been met with tremendous support, as he should be. We must always realize that hockey, while amazing, is only a sport and that a person’s life is worth more than a silver cup. Above all, believe and support survivors.