TORONTO — When it comes to the NHL fates of the five players from Canada's tarnished 2018 world junior gold-medal team facing sexual assault charges, Gary Bettman is exercising passive aggression.
The commissioner describes the alleged behaviour of Calgary's Dillon Dube, Philadelphia’s Carter Hart, New Jersey's Cal Foote and Michael McLeod, and ex-NHLer Alex Formenton on the night of June 19, 2018, in London, Ont., as "abhorrent, reprehensible, horrific and unacceptable."
Still, Bettman is choosing to wait, and not to act, as the five players defend themselves in the proceedings.
The league's own independent, 12-month investigation has been complete for some time now. But the results of that probe — which entailed interviews with all members of the '18 team but not the alleged victim, E.M., herself, as per her right to decline — are sealed.
And when meeting with a mass of reporters Friday, Bettman declined to reveal if the NHL's "complex" investigation found any wrongdoing on the players' part.
Simply put, the commissioner is electing to let the London Police make the first and, perhaps, only move here. (That city's authorities are holding a press conference Monday.)
Peppered with questions on the serious matter during an otherwise celebratory all-star weekend — Look, revamped skills! We're headed back to the Olympics! Justin Bieber's jerseys are so bright! — Bettman said the league would not interfere with what could be a months-long legal process. Watch the case(s) play out. Then respond appropriately.
A court document shows Dube, Foote, Formenton, Hart, and McLeod are each charged with one count of sexual assault. McLeod is facing an additional charge of sexual assault for “being a party to the offence.”
Lawyers for each of the players have said their clients will defend themselves against the allegations.
"The most responsible and prudent thing for us to do is await the conclusion of the judicial proceedings, at which point we will respond as appropriate at the time," Bettman said.
While the league waits, the four NHLers continue to get paid, and Bettman indicated they would continue to receive their direct deposits through to the end of the regular season.
They are on indefinite personal leave from their respective clubs, not suspended.
As luck would have it for the NHL, Dube, Foote, Hart, and McLeod are all pending restricted free agents.
The expectation is for their contracts to expire at the end of June, not receive qualifying offers from their teams, and become unrestricted free agents until the matter is resolved.
The players may slip away quietly from the NHL in the primes of their careers, free of league punishment. Or they are found not guilty.
"They've been paid the vast bulk of their salary for the year anyway. We're coming down to the stretch run when the compensation is paid to players. That's not the concern. The concern is to get this right," Bettman said.
"If I were them, I would be focusing on defending themselves as soon as the charges come down. I would be surprised if they're playing while all of this is pending."
The NHL's tack here is a sidestep in the name of "due process," which the charged are entitled to, absolutely.
What's sticky here is that the NHL, via its thorough investigation, knows more than it is choosing to reveal at this juncture — to the public, to the police, and to the clubs cutting cheques to the accused. (Deputy commissioner Bill Daly did say findings from the NHL's investigation would be shared with the London Police when legally obligated.)
Hence the questions outnumbering the answers.
The Flames, Devils and Flyers, Bettman said, were not given updates as the investigation proceeded. Anything they knew would have had to come from the players themselves.
"We did not know for sure whether or not the allegations were sustainable," Bettman explained of his approach.
"We try to deal in facts. And before we ruin a player's career, we want to have some degree of certainty as to what we're doing. There are lots of things that come to our attention that never materialize."
