Earlier this year, an unidentified player from the 2010 Stanley Cup-winning Chicago Blackhawks sued the organization for ignoring his claims that he and another player were being sexually assaulted by an assistant coach, and that the team did nothing to stop it.
The player, only previously known as “John Doe”, has been revealed to be Kyle Beach, who made his identity known tonight during an exclusive interview on Sportscenter.
Beach was drafted by the Blackhawks in the 1st round (11th overall) in the 2008 NHL Draft. His time within the Blackhawks organization was spent with the AHL affiliate Rockford IceHogs. However, his experiences occurred during the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs when he was called up by the team as a reserve.
The report states that in May of 2010, which would have been during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, team video coach Brad Aldrich “turned on porn and began to masturbate in front of” Beach. Additionally, the report says that Aldrich sent “inappropriate text messages” to Beach and threatened to “physically, financially and emotionally” harm him if he “did not engage in sexual activity”. The lawsuit stated that Beach reported the incident to James F. Gary, the team’s mental skills coach, following the incident.
A thorough investigation found that the Blackhawks are guilty of “inadequate internal procedures and insufficient and untimely response in the handling of matters related to former video coach Brad Aldrich’s employment with the Club and ultimate departure in 2010”, and they were fined $2 million by the NHL yesterday. Additionally, GM Stan Bowman resigned, along with senior director of hockey administration Al MacIsaac.
The 109 page independent investigation report was released in full yesterday. Included in the report were details on how head coach Joel Quenneville was made aware of the allegations but did nothing to deal with it in order to focus on the team’s ongoing playoff run, as well as multiple Blackhawks players making crude comments to him during the next season’s training camp, including asking if he “missed his boyfriend Brad”.
Beach released the following statement yesterday after the report was released:
Here is the first public statement from John Doe, the Blackhawks player whom Aldrich assaulted, since the lawsuits were filed.
He responds to today's news: pic.twitter.com/JVC5og9Yhg
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) October 26, 2021
