Report: After tumultuous week, Wild drama 'clearly not over yet'
Drama inside the Minnesota Wild organization may not have boiled over just yet.
The past week have been full of tumult, with the exit of assistant general manager Chris O'Hearn followed by The Athletic's Michael Russo reporting that general manager and president of hockey operations Bill Guerin was investigated for alleged verbal abuse in the workplace.
Information available to the public so far may only be the beginning despite Russo reporting that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has "been briefed on the investigations" and is "satisfied with the resolutions."
In Friday's episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast, SportsNet's Elliotte Friedman said some Minnesota players were "really upset" with a situation involving Guerin and a staff member who wound up filing a complaint against Guerin. That staff member, per Russo, is Andrew Heydt, the team's decade-long director of team operations and player relations.
"It seems like this thing is bigger than what it appears now," said podcast co-host Jeff Marek, setting the stage for his question to Friedman. "I'll throw in the caveat, knowing that there's probably bigger parts of the story, at least more parts of the story, still to come, what have you been able to put together?"
"I didn't realize there were two investigations going on, or that two investigations had occurred," Friedman answered. "It appears that the first of those two investigations focused on O'Hearn and the second of those investigations focused on Bill Guerin.
"I still have no idea what happened with O'Hearn. And like I said, people are stunned because if you would go through the NHL and say this is a person who was guilty of some behavior that could result in a mutual agreement to walk away, he would be very low on the list. Very low from what people seem to tell me. People are shocked and maybe someday we'll get some clarity on that."
Guerin has not publicly addressed allegations of verbal abuse in the workplace, nor has the organization confirmed that Guerin was the subject of an investigation. The team has however confirmed it conducted two investigations.
"The Minnesota Wild takes its code of conduct seriously. We recently concluded two separate investigations into alleged violations of that code of conduct, and have taken appropriate steps to address the matters raised to our attention. The club will not comment further," a Thursday statement from the Wild said.
Russo, citing sources, reported that O'Hearn's departure was due to a separate investigation and that the timing of the two investigations was coincidental.
Friedman went on to suggest that Guerin may not be clear of trouble just yet.
"Mike's (Russo) story had said that Guerin was going to be able to move past it, and that was something he'd probably have to undergo some classes for or something like that. Mike wrote that Guerin was expected to continue working. I don't know that. But I don't have any reason to dispute Mike Russo, I just haven't been told that same thing," Friedman said.
"The one thing that I had heard that Mike hadn't written about is that because this is a staff member who had connection to the players, I had heard some players were really upset about it. And again, I don't know what the truth is, I'm not passing judgment one way or the other. I just know that I had been told that some of the players were upset about it and the Wild had to manage that.
"There have been some times in Minnesota's history, especially recent history, where the players had real big say. Ryan Suter and Zach Parise aren't there anymore but they had real big say when they played there. While those personalities are gone, I still think that kind of way is still a bit in the organization and I was told before all the books got closed on this, some of the players that were upset would have to be sated a bit. So that's one of the things that I was kind of waiting for an answer on.
"So again, I'm not saying that Bill Guerin was right or wrong here. I know there was a complaint, I know he was under investigation. I don't know at this point and time where this is all going to go. That's where I think we are at this point in time. I really don't know what else I can say."
"The story clearly not over yet," Marek added.
