NHL decision on Hockey Canada five is good, but still lacking

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Let’s begin by giving the NHL some credit: they made clear this week that just because a court says you’re not guilty of something, that doesn’t mean you are suddenly in the “good” column again.

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“The allegations made in this case, even if not determined to have been criminal, were very disturbing and the behaviour at issue was unacceptable,” the NHL said Thursday about the Hockey Canada five being found not guilty of sexual assault. “We will be reviewing and considering the judge’s findings. While we conduct that analysis and determine next steps, the players charged in this case are ineligible to play in the league.”

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Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Cal Foote, Michael McLeod and Dillon Dube are still on the hot seat as far as the NHL is concerned. There’s an expectation of good conduct here, the NHL is reminding everyone.

And they’re right on that.

The NHL’s standard player contract has a clause declaring players must conduct themselves on and off the ice “according to the highest standards of honesty, morality, fair play and sportsmanship, and to refrain from conduct detrimental to the best interest of the Club, the League, or professional hockey generally.”

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In other words, do what you want on your own time, but if your dirty laundry gets out, we’re going to have to talk about it.

That, presumably, is the crux of the NHLPA’s challenge to the league’s eligibility position.

“After missing more than a full season of their respective NHL careers, they should now have the opportunity to return to work. The NHL’s declaration that the players are ‘ineligible’ to play pending its further analysis of the court’s findings is inconsistent with the discipline procedures set forth in the CBA,” the PA insists. The PA’s job is to protect their members’ working conditions.

But in the end, both the league and the PA are missing the bigger picture: there’s a broader cultural leadership role to play and neither organization has said or done what needs to be here.

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And a huge factor in this is the NHL being the only league of the big four North American professional sports leagues to not have a clearly defined policy around domestic violence and sexual assault.

The NFL, for instance, does. That’s how they handed Deshaun Watson an 11-game ban after being accused by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and sexual misconduct during massage therapy sessions.

The NFL took those accusations and had their own investigation under the auspices of the policy.

But everything the NHL does is ad hoc. They have an amorphous standard that they can enforce capriciously. Doing it this way doesn’t exactly lay out to players what the expectations are beyond “don’t get your name splashed about in public.”

That’s no way to lead. All it does is perpetuate a “boys will boys” culture, where the worst sin is getting caught.

It’s not going to foster a culture where people aspire to be the best version of themselves — instead it promotes avoidance of trouble. It’s only your fault if you get caught and even then, it might not be yours because someone betrayed you.

Creating a clear policy would be a start in a positive direction — but only a start.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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