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A former member of the Chicago Blackhawks‘ extended 2010 team has filed a negligence lawsuit against the hockey club, alleging that its former video coach, Brad Aldrich, “groomed, harassed, threatened and assaulted” him and the club then hushed up his complaint, due to the team’s pursuit of the Stanley Cup, according to a story in the Chicago Tribune.
The player is listed as “John Doe” in the lawsuit and was a teammate of Kyle Beach. Both were members of the team’s “Black Aces”: players from their minor-hockey team — the Rockford IceHogs — who practised with the squad during its Stanley Cup run in case someone fell injured.
The player’s lawyers, Romanucci & Blandin, filed the lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court on Thursday, naming the team as the sole defendant, according to the Tribune.
“The Chicago Blackhawks take allegations of workplace misconduct and organizational response very seriously, and it’s why, over two years ago, we commissioned an extensive independent investigation into the troubling events that occurred in 2010,” the organization said in a statement to Sportsnet. “We’ve changed as a result of what happened and implemented numerous positive improvements throughout our organization to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our players and employees. This includes completely rebuilding the leadership team with personnel who demonstrate our values and bring the right subject matter expertise in the critical areas of compliance and human resources, an expansive mental health program, and new reporting mechanisms and training for all employees.
“Until we learn more about this pending litigation, we will refrain from commenting with any additional specifics.”
Attorney Antonio Romanucci told the Tribune that the lawsuits seeks to ensure teams remain accountable.
“We have a specific mission in mind, certainly that the Blackhawks remain accountable for the changes that they have promised that they have put in place with regard to prevention of these sexual abuses,” he said.
“But we also want to make sure that all teams around the country are on notice that this is not acceptable behaviour. Putting winning before the mental health or even physical health of players, that’s over. Hard stop.”
A review by an outside law firm, commissioned by the team in response to two lawsuits and released in October 2021, found that the franchise badly mishandled Beach’s allegations that he was assaulted by Aldrich.
The Blackhawks reached a confidential settlement with Beach. Aldrich told investigators for the team’s report that his encounter with the player was consensual.
Former club general manager Stan Bowman and former coach Joel Quenneville both resigned in the wake of the investigation by Jenner & Block. Quenneville was coaching the Florida Panthers at the time.
— With files from The Associated Press