Friedman Confirms Major Fact About the Calgary Flames and Dillon Dube

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Julien Trekker
February 6, 2024 (3:16 PM)

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Calgary Flames' Dillon Dube, along with four other players from Team Canada's 2018 World Junior Hockey Championships roster, were asked to turn themselves in to the London, Ontario, police in relation to the 2018 WJC scandal.

Since then, the Flames organization has faced a lot of criticism.

Flames Face Backlash After Dube's Leave of Absence

The Flames announced on January 21st that Dube would take a leave of absence to deal with his mental health.

This led to many fans believing that the Flames wanted to protect Dube by minimizing the reason for his departure.

In response to the growing controversy, the Flames' management issued a statement clarifying they were unaware of the charges against Dube.

A renowned insider defended the organization.

Friedman Backs Up the Flames After They et Widely Critisized for Handling of Dube

During the NHL All-Star game weekend, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman addressed the media, touching on various league matters, including the ongoing situation involving Dube.

Later, Elliotte Friedman dedicated a portion of his "32 Thoughts" podast to expandon Bettman's comments, offering further insight into the league's perspective on the case.

Here's what he said:

"The second thing that Bettman said that confirmed a lot of things that I believed was that the teams had no idea what was going on. There were times over the past couple of years I would ask teams about this and they would say: «we honestly don't know,» and I didn't know whether or not to believe it. I came to believe it but in the beginning, like a lot of people I didn't believe it, but Bettman did confirm that which is that they kept the teams in the dark about what they learned, and I know that bothered teams. It bothered some of the teams, it frustrated some teals to a great deal.

"Look at Calgary, a week ago they allowed Dube a mental leave and then two days later Carter Hart goes on mental leave and we start to realize what is happening and the Flames took a lot of criticism for it. But based on what Bettman said it's pretty obvious here the Calgary Flames did not know how close this was getting or how serious this situation or even more how more serious this situation has become. I know the teams were really bothered by it, but Bettman clearly felt this was the best way to do it. It just confirmed that a lot of these teams were in the dark."

These comments shed light on the situation, but we hope that the organization learned from that mistake.

As seen on Blade of Steel - Friedman Reveals How In The Dark Franchises Were When It Came To Disgraced Players