Former Blackhawks Player is Suing the Team, Says He Was Sexually Assaulted by an Assistant Coach

A former Blackhawks player has filed a lawsuit against the franchise after he says he was sexually assaulted by an assistant coach in 2010.  The unnamed player says the assault, at the hands of assistant coach Brad Aldrich, was covered up by the team.

Another lawsuit filed by a former Michigan high school hockey player backs up those claims.  In fact the second lawsuit says the Blackhawks covered up the abuse of two players.

From TSN:

The allegations against the Blackhawks went public in May after a former player filed a lawsuit in Chicago against the franchise. That unnamed player, identified as “John Doe (1)” in court documents, alleges that he reported the abuse to the team and that it was covered up. The player also alleges that Aldrich threatened him via text messages and other communications against making a complaint.

A second lawsuit filed in May by a former Michigan high school hockey player, identified in court documents as “John Doe (2)” alleges the Blackhawks covered up the abuse of two players and gave Aldrich a letter of reference when he left the team in the summer of 2010. That letter gave him the opportunity to go on and find other victims, the lawsuit alleges.

Aldrich was convicted of abusing a then-17-year-old hockey player in Houghton, Mich., in 2013. A year earlier, Aldrich resigned from his position as director of hockey operations at Miami University on Nov. 27, 2012, “under suspicion of unwanted touching of a male adult,” the university’s attorney told police, according to police records obtained by TSN.

This doesn't sound great for the Blackhawks franchise.  Covering these kinds of things up, if that's what they did, doesn't normally workout in the long run.  I expect this to get a whole lot uglier for Chicago.