What saved Perry and the Oilers was that the allegations against him weren't publicized. The stigma is as bad as the actual crime right now.
With the reaction from the league and Hawks he clearly did something pretty bad, and even if he wasn't charged/it wasn't criminal - lately teams still don't mostly want to identify with sexual harassers, bullies, or whatever the eff went down.
But nothing published, coupled with a team owner who has been accused twice himself of attempting to pay random women including one who is underage for sex who doesn't care alot about that stuff, and McDavid himself desperate enough to win that he doesn't care, Perry walks into their team and they get nothing but media plaudits, whereas these guys even if cleared are going to have a hard time ever landing a contract in the NHL again I'd guess now that their names are attached to it.
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