Seravalli: NHLPA votes for independent investigation after Executive Board call

NHL players voted to launch an independent investigation conducted by outside legal counsel on Monday after a nearly three-hour Executive Board call in response to the NHL Players’ Association’s mishandling of the sexual assault suffered by Chicago Blackhawks draft pick Kyle Beach in 2010.

The recommendation to conduct the investigation was made by NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, who is under fire for his role in the union’s fumble.

The actual result of the vote is a formality. None of the approximate 80 players who joined the call vocally objected to the investigation; each of the league’s 32 team player representatives that make up the Executive Board have 72 hours to formally cast a vote.

According to sources, the tone of Monday’s call was described as one with very little discord, not contentious like how last week’s in-person meeting between Fehr and Edmonton Oilers players was during Fehr’s annual fall tour stop.

There is no doubt players are hungry for answers. They asked questions. They want to get to the bottom of why Beach was not properly supported.

But Fehr’s job status or job security was not questioned on the call, sources said, and Fehr was never asked to leave the call so that could be discussed – as would be the players’ right per the NHLPA constitution.

“Take in all that facts,” Edmonton Oilers representative Darnell Nurse told media was his plan before the call on Monday. “It’s hard to make a final judgment. But for myself, we look at the PA and the players and the association as a whole, those need to be people you can go to and depend on in times of crisis and in need. I think there can’t be any excuses. When someone is going through a situation like Kyle Beach was going through – a situation like that, hopefully no one ever has to go through anything like that again. But if it comes a time when someone is in a hard place and needs someone to talk to and needs support, the PA and the players and the association have to be there for them.”

Sources said Fehr reiterated to players on Monday evening that he has no recollection of the call and email from two different NHLPA certified agents, since revealed as Beach’s then-agent Ross Gurney and Black Ace 1’s agent Joe Resnick, but he did not dispute their existence.

Instead, Fehr told players that he believes that if he was given explicit details during the course of the reported communication with the two agents agents in early 2011, that he likely would have sprung into action based on his 40-plus years of experience running a public-facing, high-profile professional sports association.

Fehr told players it would have been wildly out of character for him to not act on that information, if provided, which is why he believes – though he cannot confirm because he does not have a recollection of the conversations – that he was merely told that there was an “incident” that took place.

Both Gurney’s testimony and Resnick’s email did not reveal it was described to Fehr as anything more serious than an “incident,” according to the 107-page Jenner & Block report.

Fehr told players on the call, according to sources, that if someone had told him a player was assaulted by a coach it “would not be something I would forget.”

Given that Fehr does not recall the conversation, or the email, and Resnick is on-record with TSN as saying he does not remember even sending the email, this independent investigation may not ultimately discover much new as part of the process with regards to Fehr.

It certainly could, however, reveal more about the role of Dr. Brian Shaw, the NHLPA’s appointed therapist to whom Fehr referred Beach, played in allowing Aldrich continued access to the hockey community. The Blackhawks’ independent report indicated Shaw saw Beach for at least one session, though Shaw has no record. It was unclear in the report what exactly Beach revealed about his interaction with Blackhawks video coach and serial sexual predator Brad Aldrich.

Shaw may well be culpable in not reporting Aldrich to proper authorities given mandatory reporting rules governed by his role in the medical community.

After leaving the Blackhawks, Aldrich went on to work with USA Hockey, the Univ. of Notre Dame, Miami University of Ohio and Houghton (Mich.) High School’s hockey teams. In Oct. 2013, Aldrich was criminally charged in Houghton, Mich., with third and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a student. He was convicted in Dec. 2013 of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and was sentenced to nine months in Houghton County Jail and five years of probation for his sexual assault on a high school hockey player.

The NHLPA plans to formally announce the launch of the investigation once all of the votes are tabulated. A recommendation on the outside counsel to be hired had not yet been made.