Kyrou, Steel Deny Involvement in 2018 Incident; List Narrowed to Seven Names

Last night (Tuesday, July 20) Jordan Kyrou released the following statement denying any involvement in the 2018 sexual assault allegations:

Not long after, Gerry Johannson--agent for Sam Steel--released the following statement:

The list of players, which will likely be made public anyway, who have not made any statement nor responded to questions via their agency or otherwise, include the following seven players:

- Drake Batherson
- Max Comtois
- Michael McLeod
- Tyler Steenbergen
- Alex Formenton
- Boris Katchouk
- Brett Howden

The aforementioned players have undergone radio silence during the duration of this case & its proceedings. Although Boris Katchouk did publicly state that he complied with the initial investigation, he did not explicitly state an admission of guilt.

The initial report indicated that eight of Canada's 2018 WJC team players were involved in the alleged gang rape, yet only seven remain silent on the matter. Interesting.

In the matter of those who have publicly denied any wrongdoing lies an interesting distinction: "did not engage in wrongdoing" or "did nothing wrong" is another way of saying that what transpired that night was perfectly consensual & no wrongdoing was committed. Which is basically the defense's case in a nutshell. On the same note, if one claims they cooperated in the initial investigation, that does not mean they were one of the ones being investigated.

The Canadian government & the NHL have both opened their own investigations, so even if no criminal charges stick this time around there will surely be other consequences. Hockey Canada has already determined to ban any player who refuses to cooperate from all Hockey Canada events going forward. Additionally, the NHL would surely urge its clubs who currently employ these players to exercise the standard morality clause of their contracts & terminate them entirely. Simple conjecture on my end, but that reality does seem inevitable & only a matter of time.

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