NEWSLETTER
A woman has alleged that eight Canadian Hockey League players, including members of Canada’s gold medal-winning 2017-18 World Junior Championship team, bought her drinks and then sexually assaulted her in a player’s hotel room in 2018.
Hockey Canada settled her lawsuit in May, which has brought the organization under fire for how it handled the allegations. Rick Westhead of TSN, who did incredible work reporting the Kyle Beach sexual assault case, broke the story back in May. The NHL published a statement when the story started getting international attention.
On Thursday of last week, Hockey Canada announced it is reopening the investigation into the alleged sexual assault and it will be mandatory for all players on that World Junior roster to participate. Two current members of the Chicago Blackhawks are among those reportedly being questioned.
Taylor Raddysh and Boris Katchouk, the two forwards acquired from the Lightning in the trade that sent Brandon Hagel to Tampa, were both members of that roster.
Over the weekend, GlobalNews.ca published a piece in which they reached out to the agents that represent each of the NHL players on that roster regarding the investigation and allegations.
Raddysh is one of six players represented by Wasserman. GlobalNews received a statement from Scott Fenton, a criminal defense lawyer based in Toronto, covering all six players represented by the agency.
“We act for one of the players referenced in your email inquiry and have consulted with counsel for the other players you reference. All of Global News’ questions will be asked and answered during the pending NHL investigation. That said, none of the players you reference engaged in any wrongdoing, all of the players cooperated fully with the independent London Police Service investigation in 2018, and all players were then cleared of any wrongdoing,” Fenton wrote.
“Naming any of these players now, or attempting to associate any of them in any way with alleged criminal wrongdoing, or alleging that they were not cooperative with the London Police or willing to cooperate with Hockey Canada, will constitute materially false statements constituting defamation causing serious financial and reputational harm.”
Katchouk, meanwhile, is represented by Octagon. Mike Liut at Octagon Hockey told GlobalNews: “Boris has fully cooperated with the Hockey Canada investigation and will continue to provide that cooperation in any further investigation. Beyond this statement we are not commenting further.”
Among the other prominent NHL players who were part of that World Junior roster are reigning Norris Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Cale Makar, Flyers goaltender Carter Hart and Blues forwards Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou.
