Convicted criminals in NHL history

Theokritos

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Man Bear Pig

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Damn, never realized that many NHLers had a few too many and got behind the wheel. Also, never heard about that Doug Gilmour story, kind of creepy and weird and hope to hell that it's not true. Harold Ballard is also the worst human to ever exist in this city. What an awful person.
 

Kennel

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Aug 17, 2012
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Pasi Nurminen
2007 - Fined for a barfight

And if three games make you an NHL'er:

Marko Jantunen
2014 - 3 month probation and fines for several DUIs and drug (amphetamine) related incidents

Both (especially Jantunen) have had plenty of troubles with the law, but I wasn't able to find other court decisions.

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Leo Komarov
2015 - Fined for reckless driving & minor fraud
http://www.tsn.ca/report-komarov-fined-51k-for-speeding-1.348828
 

Theokritos

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Its similar to Dallas Stars owner Tom Gaglardi, who's company was charged or had something to do with dumping chemicals in the rivers in BC. IIRC.

But according to the articles there were not charges in the case of Barrie. Dumping chemicals in the river sounds like a crime, what Barrie did however wasn't one.
 

LeafsNation75

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Jan 15, 2010
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2006 – Mark Bell (sentenced to six months (later reduced) for a hit and run and driving under the influence)
To this date I still wonder something about him. Why did the NHL allow him to play the 2006-2007 season since his arrest happened before than and suspended him 15 games during the 2007-2008 season after he got traded to Toronto. I read online that he was placed in Stage 2 of the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse Program and was given his suspension on September 12, 2007. All I'm asking is shouldn't that have been done 1 year earlier after he was first arrested or was there some legal reason that didn't happen and the Gary Bettman had no choice to wait when he announced his suspension.
 

Killion

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Feb 19, 2010
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Dumping chemicals in the river sounds like a crime, what Barrie did however wasn't one.

Oh, no, not exactly there Theo. Tom Gaglardi was found guilty of 2 charges of destroying fish habitat at his families vacation compound on Lake Okanagan. He built docks etc too close to the waterfront, like right on it without proper permits including adding gravel to the shoreline. Fined $140,000.00..... Most Canadian provinces hypersensitive about the environment & environmental control. You cant even build docks with cribs anymore in a lot of jurisdictions as the cribs have to be filled with rock & of course the rocks or gravel could be contaminated in some way. Cant be putting that in the lake. Might kill the fish. Someone see's it & reports it, the Ministries will make an example of them and they did exactly that with Gaglardi. And he made it worse for himself by then trying to cover it up. High profile guy, others then with cottages or residences on Lake Okanagan etc, think twice. Civil matter though obviously, not criminal.
 

Theokritos

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Oh, no, not exactly there Theo. Tom Gaglardi was found guilty of 2 charges of destroying fish habitat at his families vacation compound on Lake Okanagan. He built docks etc too close to the waterfront, like right on it without proper permits including adding gravel to the shoreline. Fined $140,000.00.....

Ah okay. No matter how one prefers to judge such an activity, it's sure not as worse as "dumping chemicals in the river" as was the alleged offence in an earlier post.
 

Killion

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Ah okay. No matter how one prefers to judge such an activity, it's sure not as worse as "dumping chemicals in the river" as was the alleged offence in an earlier post.

... :laugh: ya, nothing quite so extreme.
 

iamjs

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probably a stupid question since the police would sometimes escort him home after a late night downtown, but was Lafleur ever charged with DUI from his accident in 1980?
 

Killion

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probably a stupid question since the police would sometimes escort him home after a late night downtown, but was Lafleur ever charged with DUI from his accident in 1980?

I dont believe so, no. He was Charged with Obstruction of Justice in 2009 for driving his son Mark (who had a lot of problems & was on Bail for assorted craziness) after the hours of his Curfew so he could visit his girlfriend at a hotel. Lafleur was quite incensed by all of this, was found guilty, fined $100, given a suspended sentence & was ordered to donate $10,000 to a charity. However, he Appealed the conviction and it was overturned, quashed.... Since his retirement, owned a couple of restaurants, taken up flying, helicopters, owns a shuttle service, Honorary Colonel with the RCAF base out near Bagotville PQ.
 

Byron Bitz

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Apr 6, 2010
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Player that were in trouble with the law

which players found themselves on the wrong side of the law at some point in their career. Even if they were just accused of a crime and not convicted.

Craig mctavish and Doug Gilmore are a few that come to mind off the top of my head.
 

Ivo

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A special category would be players who defected Czechoslovakia in the 80s, most notably the three Stastny brothers. During the communist regime, there was a crime called "Leaving the republic" and I assume these players were sentenced (can't find any confirmation, but I saw the indictment papers for Peter and Anton). In any case, they would have been rehabilitated in 1990 and not considered convicted criminals under current laws. In any case, being convicted for political crimes by the communist regime is nothing to be ashamed of, quite to the contrary.

This would probably be similar for Soviet defectors.
 

Plural

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Mar 10, 2011
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I'm not sure if this qualifies. But back in July 2nd 1999, Selanne was suspected for endangering of life and serious vehicle incident.

Roughly, the story goes like this:

Selanne had always had a hobby of rally driving. It's pretty common here in Finland, people drive rally in closed dirt roads. It's nothing out of the ordinary.

So, in the summer 1999, Selanne was spending his summer in Finland. There was a group of Finnish "big suits" of hockey spending a day at closed dirt road. They were all driving rally with different cars there. Just like always, it was a narrow dirt road that could only fit one car at a time. So, if two cars met each other on the road, one would need to back up as long as there is a widening on the road.

The group was doing back an forth runs on the road. The basic thing that you do, is you wait for a confirmation from the other side that the road is clear. This is because the road is narrow, so both sides make sure that no-one is coming from the opposite direction. Standard procedure. Now, sometimes when you have a group that rents the road for a day, these safety procedures tend to get lost. For example, when a driver is waiting for his turn, you can't go before you get radio confirmation that the road is clear. When you are with your buddies the whole day these confirmations get "easier" and "easier". To a point where you just keep track of the cars in your head and don't even pay attention to the radio. There's a lot of times when drivers "steal". They know that the road is clear in 20 seconds, so they start driving before the other car is out.

That's what happened with Selanne. He used to have an alias, "Teukka Salama". It was one of those days. Group of friends driving around on a dirt road with your usual radio confirmation. Selanne decided to to take his last try on the road. He didin't listen enough. He started driving. There was one jumper on the road. A bump that lifted the car for a while. Everyone wanted to drive fast to it, since it means your car will fly for a while. That's what Selanne did. And when the car took off from the top off the bump, he saw another car ahead of him. And he crash landed on it. And it was completely his fault.

kummoli.jpg


He was lucky no-one died. Selanne got sentenced in Finnish court for that. Selanne can thank his lucky stars no-one died that day. The other car had 5 passengers in it.
 
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Rebels57

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This seems like an insufficient list of convicted NHLers of crimes in courts of law (but it's the best I could find).

Who other than these are NHLers were convicted criminals?

  • Slava Voynov Los Angeles Kings domestic assault 90 days in jail; three years probation
    Accepted a plea bargain on a misdemeanor account of corporal injury to a spouse
  • Dany Heatley Atlanta Thrashers vehicular homicide 3 years probation
    Also ordered to give 150 speeches on the dangers of speeding, and pay $25,000 to Fulton County for the cost of investigating the crash.
  • Nikolai Khabibulin Edmonton Oilers drunk driving 30 days
    Serves first 15 days of sentence with work release, last 15 days under house arrest
  • Mike Danton
    St. Louis Blues conspiracy to commit murder 7½ years [247] Released after serving five years
  • Bob Probert Detroit Red Wings drug possession 90 days
  • Craig MacTavish Boston Bruins vehicular homicide 1 year

There must be other players, not to mention coaches, managers and owners. THIS is an intriguing/interesting question~!

Billy Tibbets - statutory rape and assault with a deadly weapon - did 30 months in prison.
 

Rebels57

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Some of the more recent cases (1970s to now) of shady owners that comes to mind.

Paul Greenwood (NY Islanders) – 10 years for fraud

William “Boots” Del Biaggio III (San Jose & Nashville) – 8 years for fraud and forgery

Peter Pocklington (Edmonton) – 6 months for fraud

Bruce McNall (Los Angeles) – 5 years and 10 months for conspiracy and fraud

John Spano (NY Islanders) – 10 years for grand theft and forgery. He had already spent 10 years on two different occasions.

John Rigas
(Buffalo) – 15 years for fraud

Nelson Skalbania (Calgary) – 1 year for fraud/theft

Harold Ballard (Toronto) – 9 years for fraud, theft and tax evasion (served a third of his sentence)

Henry Samueli (Anaheim) - five years probation and a fine for lying to SEC

Sanjay Kumar (NY Islanders) – 12 years for fraud

Pretty amazing that people do HARD time for crimes like fraud but Brock Allen Turner, the Stanford rapist, did THREE ****ING MONTHS.

Also, a woman in the Philadelphia area was just sentenced to five years probation for a hit and run that killed someone and she admitted to have been drinking the night of and didn't notify police at all. She turned herself in after the body was discovered. Think about that. NO JAIL TIME.
 

MXD

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Pretty amazing that people do HARD time for crimes like fraud but Brock Allen Turner, the Stanford rapist, did THREE ****ING MONTHS.

Also, a woman in the Philadelphia area was just sentenced to five years probation for a hit and run that killed someone and she admitted to have been drinking the night of and didn't notify police at all. She turned herself in after the body was discovered. Think about that. NO JAIL TIME.

To be honest, the problem isn't hard sentences for Fraud, but lax sentences for Brock Allen Turner.
 

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