The long rumoured article covering the Eugene Melnyk ownership era of the Ottawa Senators finally dropped The Athletic today.
Clocking in at over 6,000 words, Ian Mendes, Katie Strang and Dan Robson co-wrote a comprehensive piece detailing Melnyk’s legacy from the time he purchased the team in 2003 through his passing just a few short weeks ago.
For me, the article provided more detail to many of the assumptions and rumours that have been swirling around this organization for a very long time.
In many cases, like Anthony Duclair’s experience in Ottawa, we were often left to read between the lines.
“I don’t want to go into too much detail about Ottawa, but the way I’m being treated here is unbelievable. To have the owner and general manager support whatever I want to do off the ice and to have that in the back of my mind is obviously refreshing,” Duclair said. “It makes me want to play harder for this organization, so I can stay here long term. Especially for a Black hockey player, there is nothing better than knowing the mindset of your bosses. It’s amazing.”
This article pulled the curtains back and tried to shed light on some of the organization’s dysfunction.
It covered everything from an embarrassing drunken locker room visit after the team was disposed of in the 2007 Stanley Cup Final to Melnyk directly referring to Daniel Alfredsson as a “prick” and an “asshole”. Somewhere in between were there corroborated stories of homophobia, racism, misogyny, workplace intimidation, and an overuse of Coldplay’s discography.
The timing of the article is inevitably going to rankle some folks. There are and will continue to be complaints that this piece should have been released while Melnyk was alive and had an opportunity to defend himself. Or that more time should have passed between the time of his death and when the story ran. When the organization was asked by The Athletic to respond to the article’s findings, team president Anthony Leblanc focused on the latter stating that the “timing and sudden urgency of The Athletic’s article on Eugene Melnyk so soon after his death is remarkably insensitive.” He followed that up by writing that “the rush to publish a story with very little new or time-sensitive information” was “both questionable and opportunistic.”
Everyone should absolutely be empathetic towards his two daughters who are mourning the loss of their father, but is there ever an ideal time to publish a piece detailing the horrific transgressions of an owner?
Probably not.
If Melnyk was alive and well at the time of the publication, this article hangs over him and the organization like a black cloud and would have helped erode whatever confidence and trust was left in this fan base. If Melnyk’s health was failing, does putting this article out at a time when he is suffering make things any better?
I don’t believe it does.
Whether this piece was published when Melnyk’s health was ailing or after he passed, some would always regard it as being in poor taste and no arbitrary length of time following the owner’s passing would ever change that.
I certainly understand why people would feel that way and I respect their opinion, but for me, I don’t know whether an extra few weeks to release the article would have softened the blow for Melnyk’s family or those who genuinely liked him. It is never easy hearing that someone you care about is depicted as doing some reprehensible things.
In a since-deleted post on the Ottawa Sun’s site, the organization issued the following statement to Bruce Garrioch:
“The timing and sudden urgency of Athletic’s story about Eugene Melnyk so soon after his death less than three weeks ago is remarkably insensitive and opportunistic,” the club said in a statement. “Furthermore, Athletic’s rush to publish a story filled with old grudges and grievances almost entirely from anonymous sources with personal scores to settle is lamentable.”
When discussing the article on yesterday’s episode of ‘Kyper & Bourne’ on the Fan 590, Justin Bourne indicated that he had heard the article took over a year to come together. It takes a lot of time to find credible sources, vet said sources, corroborate their accounts and then have the publication’s legal team pore over everything to ensure that all its bases are covered. Which is why it is interesting that the organization would defend itself primarily by targeting the timing of the piece’s release and not refuting the portrayal of its toxic work environment. With a thoroughly vetted piece that was combed through by the New York Times’/The Athletic’s legal teams, it may be the team’s only course of action.
Ultimately, this piece needed to be heard and the stories of those impacted by Melnyk’s behavior, words and actions needed to be shared. As easy as it is to feel empathy to Melnyk’s family for their loss, it is just as easy to feel for all of the employees, past and present, who have had to endure any duress or harassment during their time with the organization.
It may only be the tip of the iceberg and I cannot help but wonder how much material hit the cutting room floor following Melnyk’s passing. Perhaps more information will come forth now that this article has been published. Speaking on yesterday’s episode of ‘The Athletic Hockey Show’ podcast, Katie Strang acknowledged how hard it was when the fear of current and former employees was evident from day one. Quoting one employee that she talked to, that person said, “I really want to talk to you, but I’m scared shitless of being sued.”
With a litigious owner, the threat of a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) was always very real. So, it is understandable why so many would afraid to come forward. Thanks to this article, it may encourage others to share their experiences.
Most importantly, during the same podcast episode of ‘The Athletic Hockey Show’, Mendes acknowledged that in the aftermath of Melnyk’s passing, he reached out to every one he interviewed for the piece.
For a lot of these employees, past and present, having this article see the light of day affords these individuals who endured duress and harassment an opportunity to get some closure. Hopefully, as this organization moves forward, it can learn from these trangressions and can make significant inroads to turn a toxic work environment into a positive one.
The Lack of Media Coverage
Aside from Bruce Garrioch’s since-deleted-post, Postmedia has not touched the story. There was no mention of the article during last night’s Bruins/Senators broadcast on TSN and TSN 1200 made no effort to discuss it or even acknowledge its existence. Based off these events, it feels safe to presume that Bell Media’s legal team advised against it.
The disparity in coverage between yesterday’s article and The Athletic’s coverage of the Arizona Coyotes’ operations is pretty stark. Being a broadcast partner of the Senators certainly adds a layer of complexity to the issue, but at the very least, I am surprised that there was not even a prepared statement made to acknowledge the article’s existence. Without one, I feel for those employees because their audience knows it exists. Pretending like it is just another normal day in the nation’s capital while one of this city’s most prominent entities is impacted by a news story just makes everyone needlessly look silly.
Yost Speaks Out
One TSN writer did acknowledge the article’s existence yesterday. Analyst Travis Yost responded to one tweet outlining the overlapping timelines in which Eugene Melnyk hired a Ukrainian “IT expert” named Serhiy Perepiatenko and the time that Yost was hacked for writing about the Senators’ financial situation.
At the time, Yost traced his the identity of his hacker(s) back to an IP address in Ukraine.
That IP address is associated with an "aliveview.com.ua" domain, which according to a Google search isn't associated with much else aside from the "Help Us Help The Children" charity.
The same charity that The Athletic article linked Perepiatenko to.
The League Was Contacted by A Victim of Abuse
Absolutely forgot to write about this earlier, but within The Athletic’s story, one of the key components that I neglected to mention was how an executive was allegedly berated the owner over the team’s ‘Love is Love’ campaign - which inspired that employee to talk to two league officials about Melnyk’s actions. The league never responded to a request for comment and that same executive never heard whether there ever was any recourse for what happened.
Moving forward, it will be interesting to monitor whether the league ever addresses this meeting. If there are documented instances of harassment that were brought to the league’s attention, I wonder whether reporters will push the league on the matter.
Other News and Notes:
In one of the rare occurrences of some mainstream personalities speaking publicly about today’s piece in The Athletic, Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne reflected on the ownership story before Kypreos pivoted to the prospective sale of the team. According to Kypreos, he has been told that there are at least a half dozen credible parties who are interested in buying the team and that the price could approach $900 million.
Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek briefly touched upon the article in today’s ‘32 Thoughts Podcast’ episode. Friedman is one of the first significant hockey personalities to publicly reflect on the piece. Without discussing any of the stories at length, Friedman indicated that he believed that the article did a fair job of portraying what it was like to work within the organization under Melnyk. Using the link above, Friedman’s comments begin at approximately the 33:50 mark of the episode.
With his 33rd goal last night, Josh Norris recorded the highest-scoring season for a player aged 22 or younger in franchise history. He broke Marian Hossa’s record of 32 goals during the 2000-01 season.
Brady Tkachuk scored his 27th goal of the season last night, as well. He has a legitimate chance to surpass the 30-goal mark and if he does, he and Norris would give the organization a franchise first. The Senators have never had two players aged 22 or younger scored 30+ goals in the same season.
By registering his 50th point of the season, Tim Stützle joined some interesting company. He became just the fifth player in franchise history aged 20 or younger to record a 50-point season. Alexandre Daigle (18), Martin Havlat (20), Jason Spezza (20), and Alexei Yashin (20) were the others.
Amazing how fast this story died. It’s almost like everyone with skin in the game condoned the harassment, sexism, racism that occurred with this owner. To say I’m disappointed with tsn1200, TSN, Sportsnet, Postmedia would be an understatement.
"All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike some one they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction."
- Clarence Darrow