Sports and Drama are two of the biggest genres in the entertainment industry. When you overlap the two, you get some of the most high-profile stories in modern history: The OJ Simpson trial, Lance Armstrong’s doping scandal, the Patriots deflating balls; the list goes on. With a wide variety of sports comes a plethora of stories, and some are bound to slip through the cracks. Certain villains will never face the proper public retribution that they’re due. One such scandal involves video coach Brad Aldrich, the Chicago Blackhawks organization and their crimes against their very own player, Kyle Beach.
The date is June 9, 2010, and the Chicago Blackhawks have just defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in a 6-game series, to win the Stanley Cup, for the first time since 1961. However, there were still internal matters that needed to be handled. Nearly three weeks prior, their 1st round draft pick, winger Kyle Beach, had confided with team counselor, Jim Gary, that he had been sexually assaulted by the team video coach, Brad Aldrich. Gary recalled Beach telling him that Aldrich had pressured Beach into having sex with him, and if he did not comply, Aldrich would harm Beach’s career. At that point, Beach had been playing for the Blackhawks’ minor league affiliate and was unsuccessful in his attempts to break through to the NHL, so the threats to his career had validity. On the same day the Blackhawks informed of the allegations, team leaders (Gary, President John Mcdonough, Senior Director of Hockey Administration Al MacIsaac, General Manager Stan Bowman, Assistant General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, Executive Vice President Jay Blunk and head coach Joel Quenneville) met to discuss how to handle the situation.
There are conflicting reports on what happened during the meeting. While Gary recalled telling the team leaders exactly what Beach had told him, other people at the meeting didn’t remember being informed that the encounter was non-consensual. According to Bowman, McDonough and Quenneville both made a point to prioritize the upcoming Stanley Cup and try to avoid negative press in order to maintain team chemistry. Aldrich would still be allowed to travel with the team and participate in Stanley Cup celebrations. Even though the Blackhawks’ policy stated that all matters related to sexual misconduct would be investigated “promptly and thoroughly,” no investigation took place and the team took no action for three weeks after being made aware of the allegations. Chicago decided to give Aldrich an impossible ultimatum, allow an investigation to be conducted, or resign, collect severance and playoff bonuses, continue to receive checks for several months, get a championship ring, have his name immortalized and engraved on the Stanley Cup, hold a Stanley Cup celebration in his hometown and have no investigation conducted. Faced with this very difficult choice, Aldrich chose the latter, and resigned with his name and image intact. Three years later, Aldrich would plead guilty to sexually assaulting a high school hockey player whom he coached.
As for Beach, his career never recovered. Despite being a first-round pick, Beach never played in the NHL. Instead, he played for the Chicago Blackhawks’ minor league affiliate, the Rockford Ice Hogs. Most recently he played in the Oberliga, the third-tier hockey league in Germany. Beach suffered from long-term anxiety and depression as a result of the incident, and according to Beach, the trauma induced by the assault led to his divorce and his subsequent downward career trajectory.
The Blackhawks’ organization had actionable information that one of their employees had sexually assaulted their own player. Instead of investigating immediately, Chicago decided against taking any action until after the playoffs, where still, no investigation was conducted. Since Aldrich was allowed to resign, his name was enshrined, and a proper investigation wasn’t conducted into Aldrich’s allegations, Chicago was indirectly complicit in his sexual assault of a high schooler. An act Aldrich was only able to commit because he was his hockey coach, which is a position Aldrich only held because of the Blackhawks’ organizational incompetence and failure to produce an actual investigation.
For all of these heinous acts and cover-ups, McDonough, MacIsaac, Quenneville, Bowman, Blunk and Cheveldayoff, faced virtually no justice for their inability to handle workplace misconduct; at worst, their punishment was being forced to resign. The harshest punishments were given to Quenneville, Bowman and MacIsaac. All three were banned from the NHL indefinitely in 2021 for their involvement, however, these bans would be lifted in 2024. As for the Chicago Blackhawks organization, the NHL decided to fine them $2 million for “inadequate internal procedures.” For reference, in the upcoming 2025 offseason, if a team is caught talking to another team’s player before July 1, that team can be fined up to $5 million in addition to potential draft capital. Ultimately, Aldrich only served nine months in jail and five years probation for his crimes. His post-prison endeavors included becoming the CEO of a glass-etching company whose self-admitted “key ingredient” is college-aged interns. There is no definite date on when the company shutdown will be, but it’s likely to shut down due to public backlash after Beach filed a lawsuit in 2021.
The whole incident received minimal press coverage, especially considering the weight of the accusations against, not just an individual, but a whole professional sports team. Even if you ask NHL fans, a majority of them have never heard of the scandal. That’s why I wrote this article; to shed light on a scandal that was shrouded in the dark, and hopefully, in the future, when crimes like this are committed, the criminals are properly punished and proper action will be taken to protect the victim.
