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Kevin Cheveldayoff, general manager of Winnipeg Jets, said he was “unaware” until this year of the gravity of the sexual assault allegations made against a former Chicago Blackhawks assistant coach more than a decade ago.
An independent investigation by an independent law firm found that Cheveldayoff was part of a group of team leaders who died on the 23rd for the first time in 19 years.
The company’s report released last week said there was no evidence to support the allegations after the meeting until then-team president John McDonough the Blackhawks’ HR director on the 14th of the organization’s sexual harassment policy.
Cheveldayoff was Assistant GM and Senior Director of Hockey Operations for the Blackhawks at the time.
“Kyle was thwarted by a system that should have helped him but didn’t,” the 51-year-old said Tuesday during a press conference in Winnipeg to discuss the NHL’s decision not to discipline him for the scandal.
“I am sorry that my own assumptions about this system were clearly not good enough.”
Cheveldayoff said the allegations were presented as harassment rather than assault, and he believed that there were processes in place within the organization to deal with the matter.
The Jets GM met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman in New York on Friday to discuss his role in Chicago’s mistreatment of the allegations and was acquitted of any wrongdoing.
The report, which came in response to lawsuits from Beach and a former high school student whom Aldrich convicted of assault after leaving the Blackhawks in Michigan, found that the allegations were largely ignored by management.
Cheveldayoff is the only person placed at the May 2010 meeting who is still employed in the NHL.
“If there had been an understanding that it was sexual assault, I think it would have been handled very differently,” he said. “And the Kevin Cheveldayoff who is here today would have surely mastered it.”
Florida Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville, who was behind Chicago’s bench from 2008 to 2018, resigned after meeting Bettman last week.
Blackhawks President and GM Stan Bowman resigned after the report that rocked the ice hockey world, while Al MacIsaac, another Blackhawks top executive, is also no longer employed by the club.
Beach showed up last Wednesday as the “John Doe” mentioned in the report.
Cheveldayoff was joined by Jets Governor and co-owner Mark Chipman for Tuesday’s press conference at the Canada Life Center before Winnipeg hosted the Dallas Stars.
“As we have seen, heard and learned, this has been a terrible week for Kyle Beach and all victims of sexual harassment and assault,” Chipman said in an emotional opening statement. “Kyle should be commended for not only telling his story, but also serving as a courageous example to other survivors.”
Bettman told reporters during a virtual media availability Monday that Cheveldayoff was “such a small player on the matter” and had “no responsibility” for Chicago’s mistreatment of the situation.
Cheveldayoff has been GM and Executive Vice President of Jets since the team moved from Atlanta to Winnipeg in 2011.
In a statement released by the Jets in July, Cheveldayoff said he was “unaware of any allegations made against Mr. Aldrich until I was asked if I knew anything just before he was about to complete his employment with the Chicago Blackhawks.
“After I confirmed that I had no prior knowledge, I had no further involvement.”
Cheveldayoff defended that statement on Tuesday, adding that there were legal ramifications at the time.
“I had to try and say a lot of things without being able to say that there was a meeting in Chicago that I naturally referred to,” he said. “After that I was no longer involved. I wasn’t part of the investigation. Three weeks later (Aldrich) was no longer part of the organization and I didn’t know how this separation came about. “
Aldrich, who told investigators that the encounter with Beach was amicable, worked during the three weeks following the meeting on Jan.
Former US Attorney Reid Schar, who led the investigation with 139 witnesses and led to the 107-page report, said last Tuesday that Aldrich had also made “unwanted sexual advances” against a 22-year-old Blackhawks intern during this period .
The league fined the team $ 2 million for “inadequate internal organizational procedures and insufficient and premature response” to Beach’s allegations.
Chipman promised Tuesday that he would push for changes in the NHL.
“There are systemic problems that require systemic solutions,” he said.
Chicago – a team that previously inspired the Jets for their “win at any cost” mentality – won titles in both 2013 and 2015 with McDonough, Bowman, MacIsaac and Quenneville at the helm.
“I would love nothing more than to see the people who supported us celebrate a Stanley Cup,” Chipman said of Jets fans. “But it will never, never, never be at the expense of a person.
“Ever.”
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