There has been plenty of blame to go around among former Blackhawks employees about what followed Kyle Beach telling executives that Brad Aldrich sexually assaulted him more than 10 years ago.
John McDonough has been called a coward. Stan Bowman and Al MacIsaac departed the organization in disgrace. Joel Quenneville put winning above all else and paid the price. Kevin Cheveldayoff has kept his job as Jets general manager, but not everyone agreed with the league’s decision. Former mental skills coach James Gary had already retired, but his private practice may still be investigated. Blackhawks players from the 2010 team have been questioned about what they knew and when.
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But Blackhawks chairman Rocky Wirtz, the person atop the organization then and now, has been able to steer clear of much of it. Jenner & Block’s independent report concluded Wirtz didn’t know about what happened until the lawsuits appeared in the past year, and Wirtz has said the same.
That was enough for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, too.
“I’ve had numerous conversations with Rocky Wirtz, and I don’t doubt for a moment that he had no knowledge of this,” Bettman said Monday. “Rocky, if he did have knowledge of this, would have had the organization operate in a very different way. When you’re in an organization sometimes depending on where you sit in the various levels, information gets filtered. It’s unfortunate, and you always need to try to focus on making sure the people that you work with understand matters of urgency or importance, matters that challenge the value of the organization need to rise as high as necessary to get taken care of. Based on what was in place for the Blackhawks at the time, that wasn’t the case, and that’s why the Blackhawks have been fined.”
You would, as Bettman said, assume the Blachkawks would’ve handled everything differently if Wirtz had known. But then again, assumption is part of what got them here. Numerous people assumed someone else would investigate and properly handle Beach’s allegations, and no one did.
As a former lawyer, Bettman probably understands his defense of Wirtz likely wouldn’t convince a jury. That’s why Wirtz needs to eventually answer the many remaining questions. And it’s not necessarily due to skepticism of Wirtz. He may be telling the truth, and the report may be correct. It’s more that it doesn’t feel like we have all the information yet. Considering all of the people under Wirtz who have been assigned guilt for how things played out, he certainly doesn’t just get a free pass.
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Wirtz and his son Danny Wirtz, the Blackhawks’ CEO, spoke at the press briefing when the results of the report were announced last week, but they didn’t take questions then and haven’t since. The Blackhawks are reportedly working out details with Beach on a settlement, so that may be delaying any other public comments.
Aside from Bettman, there are others who believe Rocky Wirtz was oblivious to Beach’s allegations until this past year. Brent Sopel and Paul Vincent, who have been two of the most vocal former Blackhawks employees about what occurred to Beach in 2010, have come out and strongly said Wirtz knew nothing at the time.
I followed up with both and asked why they’re so sure of that. Sopel wrote to me that Wirtz was a hands-off owner and McDonough had micromanaged everything. Sopel also thought Wirtz wouldn’t have paid a law firm to conduct the independent report if he was guilty. Vincent simply described Wirtz as a “great man.”
Again, maybe. But none of that is concrete evidence.
The reality is it’s possible only two people truly know if Wirtz was aware of the allegations in 2010 or before the lawsuits. That would be Wirtz and McDonough. The million-dollar question is whether McDonough would hold back such information from Wirtz.
There are two theories to that. One: Some people say McDonough wouldn’t dare withhold something so potentially massive from Wirtz. A former team employee said McDonough would tell people in the front office he reported everything to Wirtz.
“He told us that all the time,” the source said. “He said he didn’t want Wirtz to find out anything that didn’t come from him.”
McDonough also said the following to Mark Lazerus during a 2017 interview for the book “If These Walls Could Talk: Chicago Blackhawks.”
“I’d always say to Rocky, and to this day, I’m only gonna tell you about 5 percent,” McDonough said in the interview. “The rest you don’t need to know. You’ll always be informed. He’s well aware of anything that’s going to happen, he’s never surprised, but I don’t take him through the minutiae of the day-to-day stuff. Critical things just about to break, I will let him know.”
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Was Beach’s allegation minutiae or critical? That answer may depend on who was giving it back in 2010. Which brings us to the second theory: that McDonough protected Wirtz by not telling him about what Beach alleged. There are those who believe that could be true, too.
So, yes, it’s complicated, which is why Wirtz needs to speak to the media. He needs to answer: If he didn’t know, then why not? It wouldn’t have just been McDonough keeping vital information from him, but many others, too. The allegations eventually made their way to human resources. Did that information get passed onto Wirtz? You can’t imagine it was a regular event for a team employee to be accused of sexual assault. When Aldrich was later given the option to be investigated or resign, did Wirtz hear about that?
If we are to believe Wirtz never learned of it then, what exactly was going on without his knowledge? What was the power structure and what else could have been kept from him? All of that leads to many other questions about how the organization was run by McDonough, who was entrusted and empowered by Wirtz as team president, and what the culture was like. Wirtz can’t just rinse his hands of McDonough that easily.
Wirtz also has to answer whether the Blackhawks fired McDonough with just cause, or if they’re seeking to. You would think McDonough had some sort of morality clause in his contract. A league source said most NHL employees do. If McDonough did as well, the Blackhawks would have a strong case to enact that clause in order to get out of any money still owed to McDonough. If the Blackhawks are still paying McDonough, they have to explain why. That would draw into question McDonough’s motives to remain quiet. It’s also important for Wirtz to distinguish between whether Bowman and MacIsaac resigned or were fired and whether their salaries are still being paid as well. That can better explain the punishments handed down to those people.
In the end, it’s possible Wirtz didn’t know anything about the allegations. You can’t rule out him possibly knowing, too. Until he speaks and thoroughly and reasonably answers the lingering questions, the truth is neither he nor the organization deserves the benefit of anyone’s doubt.
(Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski / Associated Press)
