Robison and the league will be cutting an appeal deal with Por. The Por owner has the money and balls as seen by ignoring the rules and the press releases that he would drag the league into court. Once there the league may have to disclose things it wants left in the closet.If even some of the rumours out there about what has been going on league wide are true more would fall for sure.
GO WARRIORS GO
I normaly wouldn't take Stanley's side...but Trav, your not thinking at all with what your spouting off! If the Bronco's could afford to fly families over, we could quit possibly have kept our European goalie we drafted in the first round 2 years ago, his name was Stephen Soberg (and he was a baby) but he went home to suck on his mommy. Maybe if we would have flown her over here and paid for his calls to his over seas home he would have stayed. Rules are rules and if the league doesn't follow them, then whats the point in having them? This is a premier league with the best junior hockey in the world. Why let one team get away with cheating and others not? No one is "picking" on Portland. They did it to themselves. The punishment is not too harsh at all. Portland Wintehawks, or should we call them the Lance Armstrong Hawks now, deserve all of this plus a poor reputation amongst everyone in the league. Fans included.
1989 Memorial Cup Champions
No one is saying what they did wasnt wrong just Robison went way overboard with the punishment.
GO WARRIORS GO
The idea of a major punishment for the cheaters is to deter other teams from attempting larger dishonesties. This is setting the bar high so the next guy will get it even worse so it will be avoided by all.
I think the reason that the sanctions are so high is because Portland GM Mike Johnson DENIED these infractions at the WHL Board of Governors Meetings. It's like a murderer pleading not-guilty and is later found guilty. It's a much more severe penalty than if the murderer had just pleaded guilty.
From Gregg Drinnan's Taking Note blog - http://gdrinnan.blogspot.ca/
As I understand it, a player Portland traded away arrived in his new team’s office and presented a contract that hadn’t been registered with the WHL office so was not on file in Calgary. That contract apparently included something that isn’t in the standard contract.
That apparently sparked this investigation.
One person familiar with the situation told me last night that Johnston had the opportunity to “come clean” in June and again in October. The WHL holds its annual general meeting in June; there was a gathering of governors and general managers in October. The source indicated that Johnston didn’t “come clean” and that figured in the disciplinary measures.