Omaha Lancers latest: Investigation underway, sources reveal more concerns

After days of inquiry and intrigue, the United States Hockey League has been addressing the ongoing situation with the Omaha Lancers that saw players threaten to boycott games and its remaining coaching staff resign en masse. The league announced Saturday that Dave DeLuca, the team’s president, has been put on administrative leave and a third-party investigation is underway. Additionally, the league has appointed Josh Mervis, described in a press release as a “non-active minority partner of the the Lancers and chair of the USHL’s competition committee” to oversee operations of the Omaha club while the investigation is underway.

Sources around the league raised concern over the description of Mervis as “non-active” especially given his leadership role on one of the league’s most important administrative committees. As chair of the competition committee, he is involved in many upper-level meetings with the league including GM meetings. Additionally, others voiced concern that someone involved in the ownership group would be called on to oversee a mess believed to be created by current ownership.

According to a LinkedIn profile, Mervis has been a partner with the Lancers since 2017. He has chaired the USHL’s competition committee since 2018 according to that same profile.

Additionally, sources pointed to the fact that before DeLuca was placed on administrative leave, the club hired former ECHL coach Gary Graham as the team’s new head coach. Graham has close ties to Mervis as they are both based in Indiana and Graham was coaching the Indy Jr. Fuel, a team on which one of Mervis’ children is currently listed on the roster for.

Mervis has previously been involved with the Danville Wings, Indiana Ice and Muskegon Lumberjacks either as a coach, administrator or owner. He has been involved in junior hockey in one capacity or another since 1996.

As part of the process, the league postponed the team’s three games scheduled for last weekend and representatives from both the league and USA Hockey met with Lancers players Friday. After the initial meeting, sources close to the players told Daily Faceoff that the players, all under the age of 20, were left feeling very concerned about what the next steps would be and felt like they had wasted their time. More answers came Saturday, however, as the USHL made a late-night announcement detailing next steps.

The USHL announced Sunday that the team will resume operations on Monday after the team met with Mervis, USHL commissioner Bill Robertson and Graham on a Zoom call Sunday. The team is expected to play its games next weekend.

Robertson, who just took over as USHL commissioner this summer, is also due in Omaha Monday to meet with the players in person.

The third-party investigation is being carried out by an attorney who also serves as a SafeSport coordinator within the USA Hockey system. I’m told many players and former staff have been contacted by an investigator over the last 48 hours individually to give their own accounts of what happened.

According to sources, the issues that ultimately exploded publicly last week had been ongoing for at least two months. Things came to a head when head coach Chadd Cassidy was told by DeLuca not to return to team facilities on or around Nov. 10. When DeLuca failed to secure a replacement for Cassidy and would not meet league requirements to have two coaches on the bench, DeLuca asked Cassidy to return and that they would reconvene the following Tuesday. Cassidy returned, coached the team to a home and home sweep of the Sioux Falls Stampede and left the Tuesday meeting with DeLuca uncertain of his future.

That same night, billet families received an email from DeLuca stating Cassidy had stepped down. The team sent out a press release Thursday also indicating that Cassidy had stepped down and was being replaced by Graham. Multiple sources have confirmed that Cassidy never resigned.

Last Thursday, the players decided unanimously to boycott the upcoming games after believing DeLuca had lied to them. The league issued its first statement on the matter Thursday evening. Late Thursday night, the USHL then issued a follow-up announcement that the league would be postponing the three games on the Lancers’ schedule for the weekend.

On Saturday, the third-party investigation began in earnest.

Over the course of reporting this story, sources speaking on the condition of anonymity have shared details about their experience with the Omaha Lancers this season. This is a sampling of issues raised:

• According to two sources with direct knowledge of the incident, one of the first alarm bells that indicated a tough road ahead on the budget front this season was when the team was traveling back from the USHL Fall Classic in Pittsburgh. At the direction of team president Dave DeLuca, the team bussed through the night from Cranberry Township, Pa., to Omaha, a nearly 14-hour journey with the same bus driver. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the maximum number of hours a single bus driver can drive consecutively is 10, assuming there was an eight-hour period of “off-time” immediately preceding that trip. I’m told some individuals on the bus felt concerned for their safety. A hotel stay was not authorized by the team and no replacement driver was scheduled, as would normally be the case for a trip of that length.

• The stick budget for the team was cut, some sources say by half. That sometimes forced players to buy their own sticks, which is a violation of Tier 1 standards. According to one source, one of the team’s goaltenders was down to one stick on a road trip. Because the team has one right-catching goalie and one left-catching goalie, using the backup’s stick was not an option and the team would have had to pull their starter if he broke a stick.

• The coaching staff was using a subscription video system designed for hockey at the beginning of the season, however was the team was not paying the invoices on the monthly subscription fees and forbid use of it after the company raised concerns about lack of payment. The coaches had used video as a crucial teaching tool for the players. When that subscription lapsed, coaches started manually cutting games on iMovie to try to help the players still get their video in.

• The team initially asked a billet parent to serve as the team’s equipment manager at the start of the season. USHL Tier 1 standards require the team to have one. When that did not work out, the team asked athletic trainer Nick Hart to serve in the dual capacity of trainer/equipment manager. That is not an unprecedented practice in the USHL, but is uncommon to have one person for both of the most time-consuming jobs on a hockey staff.

• After Cassidy’s apparent forced departure, DeLuca asked one of the team’s injured defensemen to be the team’s new assistant coach. USA Hockey requires at least two USA Hockey certified coaches to be on the bench for games, a threshold the player would not meet.

• Per multiple sources, DeLuca also had a verbal confrontation with assistant coach Sean Walsh, who asked to have his contract reviewed after being named interim head coach. Standard procedure would suggest he get a raise for increased duties. When Walsh brought this to DeLuca, the team president became angry, shouted and cursed at Walsh which was overheard by other individuals in the office.

• Sources said DeLuca would occasionally meet with players individually to try and gather incriminating information on Cassidy, occasionally targeting players that had been disciplined by the coaching staff for team violations like tardiness.

• When the team announced the coaching change, it was also announced that the team had formed a Hockey Advisory Group that includes several high-profile hockey people like current NHLers Charlie McAvoy and Adam Fox. The group is chaired by former NHL referee Pat Dapuzzo. When reached by Daily Faceoff, Dapuzzo confirmed he chaired and put the group together, but said he nor anyone else on the committee had any idea that would be announced. He wanted to make clear that the advisory group, which is comprised largely of close contacts of Dapuzzo’s, had nothing to do what was going on with the team and had not had any formalized conversations about the team or otherwise. Dapuzzo said he viewed the committee as his chance to give back to hockey, but was upset that the committee members’ names were used as the firestorm around the team swirled, stating they had NOTHING (his emphasis) to do with it.

• Sources have also noted that while owners can hire and fire coaches at any time, the timing of Cassidy’s departure was curious. Cassidy is a former head coach of the Rochester Americans in the American Hockey League and was a longtime assistant coach at USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program before coaching at Northwoods School in his native Lake Placid, N.Y. Among Cassidy’s former players at Northwoods was DiCesare’s son and the Lancers owner is said to have long desired bringing Cassidy into the fold with his junior franchise. The team went 8-4-2 to start the season, which NHL scouts have told me is above expectation levels at this point based on their viewings. Cassidy has also garnered support from college coaches around the country, expressing confidence in the job he was doing amid the circumstances.

The reason this controversy has sparked such impassioned response from those in and around junior hockey is because of how the players have been caught in the middle. As of right now, players are unable to be traded or to leave for other USA Hockey-sponsored teams. They have been told the roster is currently frozen while this gets sorted out.

Junior hockey is an integral piece of the hockey landscape. It is mission critical to the NHL as well as it is the training ground for the growth and development of players that the league hopes one day will be playing under the NHL shield. Meanwhile, junior hockey is a critical step for the players themselves, which can put them in a disadvantaged position, not wanting to jeopardize their future whether it be as an NHL draft pick or earning a college scholarship. It’s why the stewards of junior hockey have to continue to be hyper-vigilant when it comes to the players and ensuring they are getting what they’ve earned by making rosters at this level.

Since the players are not paid, there has to be an extra level of care taken. Especially when the teams are benefiting from their presence on the roster, making a product they can sell tickets for possible and bringing the notoriety that comes from their players moving up the ranks.

Stakeholders in the USHL have expressed concern over the damage to the league’s brand that this ordeal has done, which puts a lot of pressure on the league to get this investigation right. The hockey world will be watching closely.