A Former NHL Player Is Suing The Canadian Hockey League Over Disturbing Hazing & Abuse

Playing minor league hockey should be an exciting and positive start to someone's athletic career. However former NHLer Daniel Carcillo claims that his experience was a largely negative one, filled with disturbing hazing rituals. He outlines these alleged occurrences in a new class-action lawsuit.

The suit, which was filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and electronically issued on June 18, lists Carcillo and former Lethbridge Hurricanes player Garrett Taylor as plaintiffs.

The defendants include the Canadian Hockey League, along with the CHL, OHL, WHL, and QMJHL and all of the teams in those organizations.

The content of the lawsuit alleges that the Canadian Hockey league is "plagued by rampant hazing, bullying, and abuse of underage players, by coaches, team staff and senior players."

It continues saying that the defendants in the case did not respond accordingly to this abuse, and instead perpetuated a toxic environment.

Carcillo goes into detail about the abuse he says he experienced during his time as a Sarnia Sting rookie in 2002. 

This includes a number of different physical abuses, including being beaten with goalie sticks and belts, as well as being forced into sexual acts during events organized by more senior players. Abuses also took place during team trips for away games.

Carcillo notes that the team's management and coaches were aware of the various abuses and did not try to stop them.

In one case, he alleges that a coach actually took part in the physical beating of a rookie player.

Taylor claims he was forced by his coach to fight other rookie players during practices, and that he suffered a concussion during one of these fights.

Both players also allege that a number of racist, homophobic, and sexist slurs were constantly directed toward the rookie players.

The CHL has not yet commented on these allegations. Carcillo first detailed the various abuses he experienced in a 2018 interview with the Canadian Press (via CTV News).