NHL Draft prospect Logan Mailloux faces uncertain future after criminal charge in Sweden
By Frank Seravalli
DailyFaceoff.com
With days to go until the NHL Draft, Daily Faceoff has learned multiple teams have placed prospect Logan Mailloux on their ‘Do Not Draft’ list, after he was charged in Sweden for taking and distributing an offensive photo without consent during a consensual sexual encounter last November.
Multiple other teams rank Mailloux as a first-round talent, ranging anywhere from as high as top 15 to 33rd to 72nd on a random sampling of team draft boards, leaving many to wonder when – if at all – an NHL club will select the London Knights defenseman.
The incident occurred on Nov. 7 in Skelleftea, Sweden, where Mailloux was playing on loan with SK Lejon in Sweden’s third division while the Ontario Hockey League was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mailloux, now 18, was 17 and a minor at the time of the incident. Because he was a minor, Mailloux has given Daily Faceoff permission to publish details of the case – which was not a secret in the hockey world. Though he was not publicly identified until now, Mailloux’s offense did make news in Sweden. He says he was interviewed by 26 NHL teams in the lead up to the Draft and each one of them asked him about the incident.
The victim, then an 18-year-old female, was not a minor at the time of the incident. Daily Faceoff does not identify victims in sex-related crimes.
According to a 48-page investigation report from Sweden’s North Region Polisen, which was obtained by Daily Faceoff, Mailloux secretly photographed the victim without her consent or knowledge while engaging in oral sex.
The next day, Mailloux shared the photo in the SK Lejon team group chat on SnapChat during a bus ride to a road game. According to the investigation, the victim was not identified in the photo. A witness interviewed said in the investigation that the photo only made visible “the hair of the girl … you saw that it was a girl, and you glimpsed bra straps,” according to the report.
But when Mailloux shared the photo to SK Lejon teammates, according to the report, he also sent a screenshot of the victim’s online profile, which identified her to teammates by displaying her photo, first name and age.
Word quickly spread. The victim soon confronted Mailloux and his teammates, who claimed to delete the photo, according to the investigation. The offense was reported to police and the victim’s attorney filed a claim asking the Swedish prosecutor to order Mailloux to pay 7,000 Swedish krona (~$800 U.S. Dollars) for “offensive photography” and 30,000 Swedish krona (~$3,500 U.S. Dollars) for defamation. In Sweden, part of the fine for a crime such as this one is payable to the victim.
Mailloux was not arrested by Swedish Polisen. Mailloux was ultimately charged with both defamation and “Kränkande fotografering,” or offensive photography, and ordered to pay 14,300 Swedish krona, approximately $1,650 U.S. Dollars, by way of a criminal injunction that relieved the matter from the court system. Offensive photography became illegal in Sweden in 2013, banning secretly photographing or filming someone in a private place. The penalty is a fine or a maximum of up to two years in Sweden.
According to the investigation report, Mailloux did not dispute the facts laid out in the case. The Belle River, Ont., native also confessed to the facts in a series of text messages with the victim, which were included in the report as evidence. The photo itself was not reproduced in evidence.
“Personally, this is a huge mistake I’ve made. A stupid, childish mistake,” Mailloux said this week. “I was selfish. I want the victim and her family to know how sincerely sorry I am and how remorseful I am. I know now how it can affect their family. I regret doing it, but there is nothing I can do about that now. I hope they can forgive me one day.”
Mailloux remained active with SK Lejon, which was aware of the incident as per the report, and continued playing during the investigation. He completed his stint in Sweden as scheduled before returning home to Canada in January. SK Lejon was publicly criticized for allowing Mailloux to remain in the lineup and news reports questioned whether the club potentially influenced the investigation since Lejon’s sporting director is a Skelleftea police chief.
According to the police report, Mailloux expressed remorse to investigators.
“When asked why he posted the picture, Logan said he did not know, it was a stupid mistake and that he did not think clearly,” the report said in Swedish, which was translated for Daily Faceoff and verified by a native Swedish speaker. “He said he might think it would be a ‘fun thing,’ but that it was a stupid thought that he deeply regrets.”
The report continued: “When it comes to this, may have to do with the fact he was new to the team and maybe wanted to show off [for new] friends in some ways … he was only on the team for a few days when this happened.”
According to the report, the victim claimed Mailloux told her he sent the photo to his teammates as “a trophy” and that he did it because of “pressure from the guys.”
The victim also said in the investigation that the photo was damaging because she was “no longer anonymous,” and that even if players on SK Lejon deleted the image as they said, the incident would not “stay” within the team as Mailloux and his teammates suggested to her. She said it damaged her reputation as gossip filtered out to others in town.
“What happened affected [me] much more than he thinks,” the victim expressed to investigators.
However, Mailloux also told investigators in the report: “Logan said he had met [the victim] after this [incident] and that she told him that she wanted to ruin his career. Logan explained that the NHL Draft is [on the] way and that she knows this and that it is sensitive.”
Daily Faceoff reached the victim in Sweden on Wednesday via social media to provide opportunity for additional comment.
The response from several NHL teams has been clear. At minimum, the Arizona Coyotes, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs are believed to be among the teams with no plans to select Mailloux under any circumstance. The list is likely longer than four teams, as six teams did not interview Mailloux at all, which would seemingly indicate their lack of interest in him.
“We’re trying to put a team on the ice people can be proud of and support,” one NHL team front office member said, when asked about Mailloux. “We’ll build a less efficient roster, if need be, to make sure that is the case in our community.”
NHL teams are on high alert.
The Coyotes were embroiled in controversy last fall after using their first selection to claim Mitchell Miller in the fourth round. Public backlash was so intense that Arizona had to denounce Miller’s selection when it came to light shortly after the Draft that years earlier, Miller heinously kicked, punched and forced a mentally disabled Black classmate to eat a piece of candy that had been wiped inside a urinal. Miller reportedly never apologized to the victim, Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, or his family.
The Blackhawks are also currently enveloped in scandal. An unidentified Chicago player alleged in a lawsuit against the team that a then-assistant coach sexually assaulted him in 2010 during a playoff run and the team did nothing after he informed a since-retired employee. A separate suit alleged inaction by the Blackhawks, saying the team made a positive recommendation that enabled assistant coach Bradley Aldrich to go on and sexually assault a Michigan high school student. Aldrich is now a registered sex offender after being convicted in 2013 of fourth-degree sexual assault in Michigan. The Blackhawks have since filed a motion to dismiss the pending suits.
The NHL does not have a clearinghouse for draft prospects. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly wrote in an email to Daily Faceoff that the league leaves it up to each club to make its own decisions.
Mailloux said he has sought biweekly counseling with a licensed psychologist since returning from Sweden. After the incident, the London Knights ordered an independent psychological review on Mailloux to determine whether he presented any “red flags” in terms of his mental health or social-emotional functioning. The results of the report, which were provided to Daily Faceoff by Mailloux with permission to publish medical details, indicated that Mailloux “displayed well-developed sport-related mental skills and emotional intelligence, with particularly strong self-actualization, independence, social responsibility, problem solving, impulse control, flexibility, reality testing and stress tolerance.” Mailloux has offered to provide the report to NHL teams upon request.
The Knights plan to welcome Mailloux back to the organization next season; sources say co-owner and general manager Mark Hunter has endorsed Mailloux’s talent and character to NHL teams.
“The London Knights became aware of a situation involving Logan Mailloux that occurred when he was loaned from the team and playing in Sweden during the pandemic,” the Knights said Friday in an unattributed statement. “It is our understanding that the situation has been resolved in Sweden and the player has apologized. Team staff are working with Logan, ensuring that he is accessing the supports that are in place to help him better understand his actions, the ramifications of his actions and ensuring that this does not happen again. The team and the [Ontario Hockey] League will continue to closely monitor the situation.”
The response from other NHL teams to Daily Faceoff about whether they would select Mailloux after conducting their own due diligence has varied, with some investigations still ongoing. One NHL club said it was waiting for a response from their “risk assessment team” on whether it would even be permitted to draft Mailloux if the hockey operations department decided it wanted to select him on Draft Day. Another team said it would pick Mailloux “in the right spot.” A third team indicated the decision would be left in the hands of its president or owner. Some are still weighing whether they would select Mailloux at all.
Mailloux, a 6-foot-3 defenseman, was ranked as the 23rd best North American-trained skater by the NHL’s Central Scouting Service. He finished 43rd to 58th overall in other media draft rankings.