News Article: Penguins told AHL coach to "stay quiet" about wife's sexual assault, lawsuit says

[Mario_is_BACK!!]

Yes, and now the person responsible is running your team. Enjoy.

One of the people, more than likely.

 

[Gurglesons]

Guerin may have been the point man on this, but considering that the Pens legal team got immediately involved and Donatelli was axed, management all the way to the top knew about this. The team DID act once they were made aware, which is good. Ownership would have known at that time. The issue at hand is that they tried to keep it quiet and then laid off the victim/wife of the victim suspiciously soon after. Ownership would have been aware of all of it. I feel a little sick now after reading this article.

Yeah, the way they handled Donatelli is pretty standard. They like can't substantiate anything because the situation was basically between Donatelli, his wife and the assistant. He said, she said. But, they most likely pushed for resignation.

The way they handled the other aspects is just bizarre and bush league. Just proof of the systematic old boys club that the NHL is that makes it somewhat hard to root for the sport, but at the same time paints a ton of endearing pictures of the culture. That being said, I've never been involved with employment law on the scale of the Penguins so maybe it is standard to have a non-disclosure agreement after this type of incident for the company to save face.

 

[Sideline]

This isn't just Guerin, Cole. Guerin brought it to the org's legal department. JR and possibly Morehouse would've been briefed on why they were letting their AHL head coach go, no? Their jobs should be in jeopardy pending investigation. This could reverberate through the entire organization and could dramatically impact the future of the management team.

That part of the time-line stood out to me too. Guerin did the right thing at first by taking it to the legal department. Donatelli was fired within days of management being made aware. So far so good.

The real questions are who decided Guerin should tell Sklade to keep it quiet and what exactly did Guerin say in that conversation?

The sad reality is that this going public will probably hurt Sklade's career. If Guerin was trying to have a one on one with a junior colleague about the consequences of going public it could be a case of poor communication.

But the fact that Sklade is the only person from hockey ops to get fired though makes me doubt this was an innocent miscommunication.

 

[gdsmack267]

I mean this has to land on Guerin and by association Rutherford. Are we supposed to believe GMJR never knew about this ?

 

[Gurglesons]

I mean this has to land on Guerin and by association Rutherford. Are we supposed to believe GMJR never knew about this ?

I'm not sure what has to land on Rutherford and Guerin. They became aware of it, they made their legal team aware of it, the legal team engaged with the accuser and the employee in question "resigned" six days later.

 

[SomeDude]

I'm not sure what has to land on Rutherford and Guerin. They became aware of it, they made their legal team aware of it, the legal team engaged with the accuser and the employee in question "resigned" six days later.

You're right from a legal stand point. From an optics and PR standpoint the "keep this quiet" thing is going to be hard to come back from. Especially if it is validated that this was not the first time that someone had reported inappropriate behavior.

 

[Gurglesons]

You're right from a legal stand point. From an optics and PR standpoint the "keep this quiet" thing is going to be hard to come back from. Especially if it is validated that this was not the first time that someone had reported inappropriate behavior.

Why? Should his boss been like "go to the media about our coach groping your wife?".

 

[SomeDude]

Why? Should his boss been like "go to the media about our coach groping your wife?".

He certainly shouldn't have said "It would be best to keep this quiet." Chances are there is going to be a lot of public pressure as this story grows. We will see how the Pens (and Minnesota who just went through a whole thing with their last GM) handle it.

 

[Tom Hanks]

Why? Should his boss been like "go to the media about our coach groping your wife?".

No but he could have gone with the third option and said nothing instead of “keep this quiet”.

 

[Gurglesons]

He certainly shouldn't have said "It would be best to keep this quiet." Chances are there is going to be a lot of public pressure as this story grows. We will see how the Pens (and Minnesota who just went through a whole thing with their last GM) handle it.

They never substantiated the claims. Employee investigations are always kept quiet. Every time I talk to an employee during an investigation I ask them to keep this situation between themselves and HR.

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

When the team's owner is on Epstein's flight logs, do you really expect any different?

 

[Gurglesons]

No but he could have gone with the third option and said nothing instead of “keep this quiet”.

I mean, the coach is alleging that they were done wrong by what he didn't say or didn't do so I'm not sure that really matters in this case.

The biggest issue here is the fact they fired the individual a year after sexual harassment charges were brought up to him. TBH, I think the Penguins win this case without a second glance or settle outside of court simply to get rid of the optics.

 

[SomeDude]

They never substantiated the claims. Employee investigations are always kept quiet. Every time I talk to an employee during an investigation I ask them to keep this situation between themselves and HR.

Interesting to hear from an HR perspective. Again, the court of public opinion is a whole different ball game, though.

I think the main point to take away from all this is that you are officially the Toby of the Pens board.

 

[Gurglesons]

Interesting to hear from an HR perspective. Again, the court of public opinion is a whole different ball game, though.

I think the main point to take away from all this is that you are officially the Toby of the Pens board.

I mean, if the court of public opinion meant anything why is DeSmith part of this team.

 

[SomeDude]

I mean, if the court of public opinion meant anything why is DeSmith part of this team.

Because the general public does not know the criminal background of unsigned free agent college goaltenders.

This is going to be a much bigger story that people who do not even care about hockey will see.

 

[Gurglesons]

Because the general public does not know the criminal background of unsigned free agent college goaltenders.

This is going to be a much bigger story that people who do not even care about hockey will see.

I doubt it. TSN put out a attention grabbing headline. I doubt this will be anything more than a blip.

If Donatelli was still with the org or had been after the incident was reported? Maybe.

 

[SomeDude]

I doubt it. TSN put out a attention grabbing headline. I doubt this will be anything more than a blip.

If Donatelli was still with the org or had been after the incident was reported? Maybe.

I think you vastly overrate the general public. Attention grabbing headlines are the news. The details are for suckers.

 

[Gurglesons]

I think you vastly overrate the general public. Attention grabbing headlines are the news. The details are for suckers.

Sports News, Opinion, Scores, Schedules | TSN

Look where it is on the website. This will be an issue for a couple days and nobody will care.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I can't help but cynically agree.

It isn't monolith news or wild horseshit conspiracy theories so nobody will care in ~12-24 hours.

 

[Gurglesons]

I can't help but cynically agree.

It isn't monolith news or wild horseshit conspiracy theories so nobody will care in ~12-24 hours.

I mean tbh it isn't much of anything. It is a wrongful termination suit. Organizations deal with them every day and most of them never get anywhere.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I mean tbh it isn't much of anything. It is a wrongful termination suit. Organizations deal with them every day and most of them never get anywhere.

Yeah. I mean it's pretty reprehensible and here in the hockey community it will have more traction (especially since people already despise this team) but in the overall picture it's small potatoes with everything else going on.

 

[Fordy]

i think people are overreacting and this will blow over in a week. i don't think they actually handled anything all that incorrectly

 

[Pens x]

When the team's owner is on Epstein's flight logs, do you really expect any different?

Oh wow, I didn’t know that Burkle had ties to Epstein.

 

[Pens x]

i think people are overreacting and this will blow over in a week. i don't think they actually handled anything all that incorrectly

I think the cancel culture has gotten out of hand, but this story looks so bad. In today’s political climate, the Pens better explain themselves thoroughly.

 

[Gurglesons]

I think the cancel culture has gotten out of hand, but this story looks so bad. In today’s political climate, the Pens better explain themselves thoroughly.

We were made aware of the allegations that Jarod brought to our attention on X/XX, on X/XX we had a discussion with Donatelli regarding these allegations, on X/XX Donatelli resigned from his position and at that point we concluded our investigation.

Not sure what anyone would have to go against that.