A second player from the Blackhawks’ 2009-10 team has sued the Hawks for mishandling alleged sexual assaults in 2010 by disgraced former video coach Brad Aldrich, the Chicago Tribune reported Sunday.
The anonymous player was a so-called Black Ace during the Hawks’ 2010 Stanley Cup run and was also a key witness in the Jenner & Block investigation in 2021, which came after former Hawks forward Kyle Beach — another Black Ace in 2010 — filed the first lawsuit against the team related to this issue.
In the new lawsuit, the player alleges that Aldrich hugged him while grinding his penis into him, sent him harassing text messages — including one image of his penis — and snuck into a bedroom to watch and touch him while he was having sex with a woman, according to the Tribune.
The lawsuit, filed by the Chicago law firm Romanucci & Blandin, accuses the Hawks of showing “utter indifference and/or conscious disregard for the safety of its employees,” according to the Tribune — mirroring similar claims by Beach before his lawsuit was settled in 2021.
The Jenner & Block report found Hawks executives held a meeting in 2010 to discuss the claims of improper conduct by Aldrich but decided to wait until after the playoffs to take action. Aldrich ultimately left the Hawks that summer, but the claims of misconduct were not reported to the police, and Aldrich went on to allegedly assault several college and high-school students in Ohio and Michigan during the following years.
No executives from the Hawks’ 2010 team remain employed by the Hawks, although Kevin Cheveldayoff — one of the people allegedly present at the meeting — remains the Winnipeg Jets’ general manager.
Since the 2021 scandal, the Hawks — led by new chairman Danny Wirtz — have worked to improve their internal workplace culture and implement better systems for reporting misconduct.
“The Chicago Blackhawks take allegations of workplace misconduct and organizational response very seriously, and it’s why, over two years ago, we commissioned an extensive independent investigation into the troubling events that occurred in 2010,” the team said in a statement given to the Sun-Times on Sunday.
“We’ve changed as a result of what happened and implemented numerous positive improvements throughout our organization to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our players and employees.
This includes completely rebuilding the leadership team with personnel who demonstrate our values and bring the right subject matter expertise in the critical areas of compliance and human resources, an expansive mental health program, and new reporting mechanisms and training for all employees.”
Many of the events described in the new lawsuit are also mentioned or described in the Jenner & Block report, but the anonymous player “denied that he had any direct sexual encounters with Aldrich” to Jenner & Block investigators in 2021.
Antonio Romanucci, a partner of Romanucci & Blandin, told the Tribune that the player did not realize at the time that Aldrich’s actions toward him fit the definitions of sexual assault but has since learned they do.
