WHL SANCTIONS PORTLAND WINTERHAWKS

[CdnSailor]

http://www.whl.ca/article/whl-sancti...nd-winterhawks

CALGARY, AB. - The Western Hockey League announced today the disciplinary action which has been taken against the Portland Winterhawks franchise for a series of violations of the WHL Regulations.

As a result of a series of player benefit violations which have occurred over the past four seasons, WHL Commissioner Ron Robison has suspended the Portland Winterhawks from participating in the first five rounds of the 2013 WHL Bantam Draft and the forfeiture of their first round selections in the 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 WHL Bantam Drafts. Should the first round selection in 2014 not be available due to a conditional trade, Portland will surrender their second and third round picks in the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft. The WHL also announced the Portland Winterhawks have been fined $200,000 and Winterhawks General Manager and Head Coach Mike Johnston has been suspended for the balance of the 2012-13 season, including the 2013 WHL Playoffs.

“All WHL Clubs understand they are required to fully comply and respect our League Regulations or they will face significant consequences,” stated WHL Commissioner Ron Robison. “WHL Clubs are required to fully disclose all commitments they make to a player in the WHL Standard Player Agreement. Our independent investigation in this case revealed there were multiple violations over an extended period for player benefits that are not permitted under WHL Regulations and were not disclosed to the WHL. It should also be noted through the course of the investigation there was no evidence of any payments or enhanced education benefits provided to players that would be contrary to WHL Regulations as previous media reports indicated.”

The Western Hockey League will not make any further public comments on this matter.

[chalk_one_up]

Excessive tbh.

[mjw22]

Way overboard by the league for the infractions involved. Appeal will most likely knock it down a bit.

[SectionNDeserter]

Excessive, but not WAY excessive. They did allegedly give thousands of dollars to some of the player's parents (in free flights) to recruit them to play there, presumably instead of playing NCAA hockey.

[mjw22]

Excessive, but not WAY excessive. They did allegedly give thousands of dollars to some of the player's parents (in free flights) to recruit them to play there, presumably instead of playing NCAA hockey.

Probably nothing the NCAA doesnt do to get players to go south.

[SectionNDeserter]

Probably nothing the NCAA doesnt do to get players to go south.

Yep, it would appear to be the NCAA's move now.

[mjw22]

Yep, it would appear to be the NCAA's move now.

If youre only trying to keep players you drafted from going south I dont have a problem with it.Now the NCAA will have a field day with this.

[Hockeyfantastic]

Excessive, but not WAY excessive. They did allegedly give thousands of dollars to some of the player's parents (in free flights) to recruit them to play there, presumably instead of playing NCAA hockey.

Excessive? Maybe not. We will see how Portland fights this. I would think we will never know the specifics of all of the violations and therefore we will have to judge this on Pertland's reaction and future changes to the fines if any.
Needless to say, the governors and GM's of all the WHL teams should consider themselves to be partners. When one partner violates the trust of the partnership, this is the result. There are rules and penalties governing infractions and don't worry, the GM/governor of Portland would have known rules were violated.

[patsdude114]

Same thing happened in the OHL this past year as well with the Windsor Spitfires. This is not an excessive move at all by the league. I know from the OHL part of it the Windsor Spitfires had gotten a player to not report to the team who drafted him so the Spitfires could trade for his rights & give the family a financal benefit for making it happen....it was 1 of the players from there back to back Memorial Cups that leaked out over time.

It wouldnt surprise me at all if this had something to do with the Seth Jones case, where he wouldnt report to EVT but all of a sudden he gets his rights traded to the portland winterhawks & he reports to them....alittle fishy most definately & him being an american kid it wouldnt surprise me at all if the Winterhawks had paid good money to his family for him to report.

This league nor the CHL doesnt need this sort of stuff happening, a fine like this will make all clubs think twice of doing this sort of thing.....if this happened to a smaller market team like MJ/PA/SC u could kiss there franchise good bye no doub t as they would never recoupe from all those picks being missed. A bigger franchise like Portand will just have to pay alittle more into scouting to make sure there picks after the 1st rd from 2014 & on mean alot more to pick the right players.

[west coast]

good point on sanctions like this would devastate a small market club - Mike Johnson has done a great job in Portland - he seems like an honest good natured guy who is a brilliant hockey mind and his networking contacts are impressive ad he has coached in the NHL.I would however disagree that Seth Jones parents took any money as his family are rich as Popeye Jones his father played many years in the NBA and his family would be considered rich.I would like the WHL to disclose exactly the violations were? and lets be honest!