[News] NHL will not discipline Cheveldayoff with respect to Brad Aldrich

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by Stillman16

I agree with this, but he should have asked, to determine this is what happened IMO. As someone who was in the meeting, he likely had a right to know the outcome.

And I still believe, someone in the room should have stepped up and said " we can't have this guy around the team, at least until this is settled"!

What if in the end he thought it ended up being consensual, and it was all dealt with afterwards with Auldrich being let go, as was told by senior management it was handled? Would he have known any better?

It's easy to go back and wish people did things differently in hindsight after the investigation came out and we know all the facts.

[GioforPM]

The problem with Chevy is he said this:

"I had no knowledge of any allegations involving Mr. Aldrich until asked if I was aware of anything just prior to the conclusion of his employment with the Chicago Blackhawks,".

That significantly underplays the type of knowledge and what happened afterwards. It makes it sound like Chevy was just told "we're firing Aldrich and here's why", when he was actually in on the decisions and by "just prior" he means "three weeks".

[sureLoss]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1454149551225507841

[Fan in Exile]

Originally Posted by Lonestar

So if I'm understanding correctly, if a child is assaulted by the gym teacher and the lowly administrator has knowledge, he/she should just let the principal handle it? Gym teacher gets let go and hired by another school?

That's absurd.

What would your position be? That the entire school staff is fired because the principal failed to take action? It's plausible that Chevy thought it had been investigated and handled appropriately. He didn't write the positive review letter or letter of recommendation and wasn't in a position to know about those things.

No doubt this was still a moral failing, and one would hope that he or anyone similarly situated in the future would act more proactively. But there is some room for nuance and I can understand why Quennville is out of the league and Chevy is not.

[Fan in Exile]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

The problem with Chevy is he said this:

"I had no knowledge of any allegations involving Mr. Aldrich until asked if I was aware of anything just prior to the conclusion of his employment with the Chicago Blackhawks,".

That significantly underplays the type of knowledge and what happened afterwards. It makes it sound like Chevy was just told "we're firing Aldrich and here's why", when he was actually in on the decisions and by "just prior" he means "three weeks".

Having read his statement changes my evaluation. Bettman should have addressed it. Perhaps not initially culpable but actively participated in covering it up. That's reason enough I would want no association with him.

[mrchristy31]

Although we can question the integrity and moral compass of Cheveldayoff, I think we need to reserve extreme judgement. Those that work in the Corporate world should empathize, although not condone.

I can honestly say, If I were in a meeting with multiple levels of management, and was told without specifics there was accusations of sexual assault or harassment and the matter was being dealt with, I would have a moral dilemma.

-Aggressively following up can very easily be seen as 1)doubting my superior 2)undermining his or her authority and hierarchy, ultimately jeopardizing my career.

-The alternative as we've seen is doing nothing which in no exaggeration has ruined lives.

With that being said, the silver lining of this extremely unfortunate event, has been to open my eyes and think outside of my career and wellbeing, god forbid a situation like this ever arises.

Long winded, we are all perfect in hind-sight, but I'm not sure scorched earth fire them all is an appropriate response.

[rohara66]

Originally Posted by mrchristy31

Although we can question the integrity and moral compass of Cheveldayoff, I think we need to reserve extreme judgement. Those that work in the Corporate world should empathize, although not condone.

I can honestly say, If I were in a meeting with multiple levels of management, and was told without specifics there was accusations of sexual assault or harassment and the matter was being dealt with, I would have a moral dilemma.

-Aggressively following up can very easily be seen as 1)doubting my superior 2)undermining his or her authority and hierarchy, ultimately jeopardizing my career.

-The alternative as we've seen is doing nothing which in no exaggeration has ruined lives.

With that being said, the silver lining of this extremely unfortunate event, has been to open my eyes and think outside of my career and wellbeing, god forbid a situation like this ever arises.

Long winded, we are all perfect in hind-sight, but I'm not sure scorched earth fire them all is an appropriate response.

I tend to agree with this assessment.... and I don't doubt that Bettman would go scorched earth with anyone and everyone that he felt legally could be punted.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Why would he not question that decision or ask what was going on when the guy was still there? This is a very serious accusation. It sounds to me like you are jumping through hoops here to defend a guy who heard of a serious sexual misconduct and then did nothing to cover his own ass.

I'm not concerned with defending him or not.
I appreciate that the league didn't use a broad stroke approach to punish everyone to save face.

If Chevy deserves further punishment, fine.
But if he doesn't, fine too.

I'm not into internet mob justice and taking down everyone for the sake of it. Some of you are acting like he's the sexual assaulter here
An independent investigation into the role each person played would be my suggestion.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by MBates

In reality, large organizations can ensure failure to improve in the way Sheldon is describing here by just indiscriminately firing every bystander. Because then it allows for everyone else left to just say "Phew, glad all that problem is gone from the league". It becomes an excuse to not make actual lasting change to the entire organization and the culture that enabled the abuse and the cover-up.

Not only that, firing everybody can actually encourage future coverups. The next time something like this happens, people are liable to say to themselves: ‘If I admit to knowing anything, I'll get fired and lose my whole career. Better keep my mouth shut!’

It has to be safe to speak out, for witnesses as well as for victims.

[Calgary4LIfe]

Nobody (AFAIK) wants Cheveldayoff crucified, or have his head on a pike, or whatever. It just seems to me that someone who was in a position of authority at the time and with knowledge of what happened did nothing. Not only that, but he lied about it right up until the end.



2 more (at least - hopefully only 2 more) people were victimized because of Cheveldayoff's lack of action. He continued to lie about it up to a few days ago. No consequences at all.


Yes, you don't want to go 'scorched earth'. However, I argue that by not holding people accountable for their inaction on moments like this, then it helps to perpetuate further inaction, not the other way around. There should have been 'something' of consequence here. No public stoning required, but just something to say that "Hey, that was not ok, and your continued lying about it and trying to continue covering it up is NOT ok and will not be tolerated." I don't know what would have been appropriate, but nothing is not appropriate in my mind.

[Lonestar]

Originally Posted by Fan in Exile

What would your position be? That the entire school staff is fired because the principal failed to take action? It's plausible that Chevy thought it had been investigated and handled appropriately. He didn't write the positive review letter or letter of recommendation and wasn't in a position to know about those things.

No doubt this was still a moral failing, and one would hope that he or anyone similarly situated in the future would act more proactively. But there is some room for nuance and I can understand why Quennville is out of the league and Chevy is not.

My position would be very firm. Anyone in the meeting knew of the allegations yet they continued to see the accused individual around the organization without asking "WTF??" They should be held responsible for their inactivity. Turning a blind eye and saying "someone else will take care of it" or "it's not my job" is complete horse****.

We aren't talking about some off-colour emails. It's sexual assault, and it should have gone directly to law enforcement. In my opinion, every individual in that meeting should not be employed in the NHL any longer.

[GioforPM]

Would we not all respect Chevy more if he said “I was there, I was afraid to speak out because I was a new AGM just hired that year, so many senior guys were taking a different approach and I didn’t fully get the impact of the accusations. I wish I’d spoken up and helped Beach. But I just didn’t and I regret it completely.”

[Goriders]

No one on here was in the meeting. Bettman’s a lawyer and wouldn’t want to risk the league’s reputation. I’m sure Cheveldayoff was a bystander.

The quenneville and Bowman were definitely more entangled in the handling of the situation and their careers are probably over.

All in all one guy is the root cause Aldryk?? and a number of careers will end because of what he did. Horrible situation. Sounds like numerous people didn’t handle it properly including a lot of the players.

But I don’t think you can paint everyone with the same brush. Especially minus all of the facts. Which no one in the general public probably has.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Goriders

No one on here was in the meeting. Bettman’s a lawyer and wouldn’t want to risk the league’s reputation. I’m sure Cheveldayoff was a bystander.

The quenneville and Bowman were definitely more entangled in the handling of the situation and their careers are probably over.

All in all one guy is the root cause Aldryk?? and a number of careers will end because of what he did. Horrible situation. Sounds like numerous people didn’t handle it properly including a lot of the players.

But I don’t think you can paint everyone with the same brush. Especially minus all of the facts. Which no one in the general public probably has.

Thats the problem.

They were all bystanders.

[OptimalTates]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Would we not all respect Chevy more if he said “I was there, I was afraid to speak out because I was a new AGM just hired that year, so many senior guys were taking a different approach and I didn’t fully get the impact of the accusations. I wish I’d spoken up and helped Beach. But I just didn’t and I regret it completely.”

I would have had more respect if he simple said "no comment." He didn't set his own bar high here.

To say he did not know anything, a bold face lie, was him just trying to sweep it under the rug...again.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Would we not all respect Chevy more if he said “I was there, I was afraid to speak out because I was a new AGM just hired that year, so many senior guys were taking a different approach and I didn’t fully get the impact of the accusations. I wish I’d spoken up and helped Beach. But I just didn’t and I regret it completely.”

We would. It’s baffling that nobody but Sopel and Boynton have taken that road.

[Locke]

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Locke

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

“It profits a man nothing to gain the whole world and lose his soul. But for the video coach?”

[woob]

I think they got this wrong. Merely by being in a management type position, does he not have some responsibility to follow up on this, especially when he sees Aldrich around and then celebrating with the team?

And then add in him not being truthful about his involvement to start with, but then owning up to it?

In my mind; Sure he was a lower seniority in the room, but the cover-up and inaction and then denials of knowledge should be enough of a reason for discipline.

[PepsiFree]

Thinking about it more, it’s also strange that Chevy didn’t say anything to anyone until the investigators came calling. The report came out about John Doe months ago. Chevy was there, he knew. If he hadn’t been following Aldrich or Beach since he left, he knew then what happened to them. He knew Aldrich went on to go assault a child. He knew Beach was John Doe, he read what happened to him… and the only people he told, from what I can gather, are the investigators hired by the Blackhawks.

Nothing to the NHL or Gary Bettman saying “hey, I know what happened, I was there, I can help.” Nothing to the media. Nothing to Beach.

The report came out and he said nothing.