It's true that people who have mental health concerns, can commit crimes and vice versa. People who may have committed a crime and see everything fall apart, can have mental and or physical health concerns. Think chest pains, panic attacks, trouble sleeping, anxiety and more. So yes, the Flames statement about him being away for mental health concerns is 100% accurate and correct from all available evidence.
Where the Flames look ****ing stupid and a bush league organization is on what happened AFTER. Sending out players to sing praise about mental health, support, how he should get the care he deserves etc, implying the Flames are some great, supporting organization etc. You think the players are happy about that now??
As for not knowing details, is it really hard to find out basic details off the record? I mean, you can take some basic facts and run the balance of probabilities. He was on the team, he was the captain, was he or was he not in London, ON at the time? No, ok great!! Or Yes, ok maybe we should dig a little closer. It's called due diligence and risk management. It's really NOT that hard to figure out what happened on the broad level if you actually ask around and are competent.
You can't change what has happened but this notion that nobody knows nothing is absurd. They are in the hockey business! It's a small group of people, everybody knows each other and has friends/connections.
As for terminating their contracts, I would say that it's important to let the process play out and see what happens with the court cases before making any drastic moves from a legal perspective. This could be a very very strong case which makes the initial London Police investigation look brutal, or it could be a very weak case that will easily be defended. Doubtful it goes to multiple trials but some of the evidence might be damming.
Brutal all around
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