NHL investigation into allegations against Ian Cole is a joke

• warning: This article contains allegations of sexual coercion against minors and may be offensive

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from It’s been a week since the initial allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse against Tampa Bay Lightning’s Ian Cole until the NHL’s investigation was closed. After the allegations from Twitter user @emily_smith3333 (likely an alias to protect her real name) surfaced on Oct. 7, the NHL announced last Saturday that there was “no evidence to support the allegations.” It took just over a week for the NHL to get to the bottom of the matter before his suspension was overturned. His only public outreach from the NHL on the matter was a tweet from the league’s official account posted below on Friday. The NHL’s statement regarding its investigation into Cole mentions multiple ways the league attempted to contact the accusers.

Smith claims she was groomed by Cole for four years, starting when she was a minor. Smith claims that Cole knew she was in high school when he pursued a relationship with her. There are additional accusations that Cole is bragging about his relationship with Smith to his teammates. Are you assuming it was thoroughly done over the course of the full seven days? And that assumes that the NHL had no prior knowledge of the allegations against Cole and never investigated them. Not only did he accuse him of sexual misconduct with Mr. (he denies the allegations), She also alleges that the 13-year NHL veteran was also involved with another minor.

The legitimacy of the investigation into Cole’s alleged behavior is questionable. Deadspin has made multiple attempts to get comment from both the NHL and Lightning on the length of the call’s investigation, but have received no response as of this posting. Even in the simplest cases, you should spend a reasonable amount of time reviewing all the information. This isn’t as easy as paying a small fine at an auto speed machine, Radar can see how fast someone is driving. Multiple serious allegations were made against Cole. Unless the NHL is in doubt Surely all of Smith’s claims are exaggerated, and Cole shouldn’t be near the Lightning Team facility right now.And if there is concrete evidence that the claim has zero factual evidence, where some kind of countermeasureThat’s what happened to the Georgia Tech men’s basketball head coach The Case of Josh Paster, per ESPN. Hoping that no more attention will solve the problem is a terrible strategy if Cole is innocent and focuses on the “what if”.

A simple question that the NHL needs to answer deserves to be treated as public information. Let’s start with this: Did the league ask Cole to disclose all possible identities of Emily Smith? Taking Twitter’s statement at face value should narrow those options down significantly. The number of Cole’s four-year relationships is almost certainly not in the single digits. The impression taken from this investigation, which is important if the reality is not clear, is that the NHL did not give Cole’s case adequate due diligence.

Lightning, NHL, Or any other participating team getting the benefit of the doubt here is ridiculous. Yes, not all sexual assault allegations turn out to be true or lead to prosecution from suspected abusers or defamatory whistleblowers. It’s a recurring pattern in hockey that doesn’t care, the most recent example being an investigation into calls lasting up to nine days. The NHL has confirmed that several women have been promoted to assistant her general manager positions this offseason. charged to that player. Let’s start with Patrick KaneJake Vertanen, Evander Kane, Hockey Canada general, others. Patrick Kane and Evander Kane have both denied wrongdoing, and Bartanen has admitted having a sexual relationship with her accuser but denies coercing her. was acquitted. The case against Evander Kane was postponed and dismissed after he pleaded not guilty.Patrick Kane was never charged.

Every group has bad apples. It seems silly to spend a week researching all of Mr. Smith’s allegations. She’s beyond comprehension to rely on public tweets asking for direct messages from her account.