Mailloux not in Habs' camp, but his presence is being felt
Canadiens hope new program will educate and inform young people, but real awareness starts with those who hold the levers of power in the organization
When the Montreal Canadiens hit the ice for their rookie camp Wednesday, 2021 first-round pick Logan Mailloux was not among the 27 hopefuls who hope to someday wear the colors of the most tradition-steeped team in the NHL. He won’t be in their main training camp, either. The organization talked about this step as “punishment” and “penance” for his well-documented indiscretion, a backtracking action that was taken only after the organization experienced an enormous amount of deserved criticism for selecting him in the first place.
Logan Mailloux will miss a minimum of 29 games in the Ontario Hockey League this season. The earliest he’ll be able to play a major junior hockey game for the London Knights is Jan. 1, 2022. His reputation is in tatters and he faces a very long road to redemption. Will he have paid enough for his decision to take a photo of a woman in Sweden with whom he was having consensual sex and then distribute it without her consent? On one hand, Mailloux avoided any legal ramifications, aside from a fine. On the other, he’s being denied an opportunity to do what he loves most.
But at some point, Mailloux is going to be handed a clean slate. And few people know more about that than Canadiens’ director of player development Rob Ramage. In 2003, Ramage was driving former NHLer Keith Magnuson home from a funeral when his rented car swerved into an oncoming lane and collided with another vehicle, killing Magnuson and injuring a woman.
Ramage was found guilty of five charges, including impaired driving causing death and dangerous driving causing death, and was sentenced to four years in prison.
“Speaking from experience, I’m a guy who was given a second chance and that’s why I’m here today,” Ramage said. “I started speaking to groups when I was in prison, when I was an adult, much older than Logan. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to, not just youth hockey, college, junior, NHL, Major League Baseball, the FBI, first responders…I would have never had that opportunity if I wasn’t given a second chance. We’re going to help Logan get there. It’s one day at a time, one step at a time. But he’s motivated and I believe he’s going to get there.”
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More importantly, though, Mailloux isn’t the only one who seriously needs some guidance here. Until today, the entire process from the moment the Canadiens drafted Mailloux in July has been a debacle, one entirely unbecoming of a franchise of its stature and position in the community. Whether it’s damage control or an earnest attempt at making things right, the Canadiens have implemented what they are calling a “Respect and Consent Action Plan” to raise awareness, both inside and outside the organization, about the importance of respect and consent and the consequences of sexual cyberviolence.
With $1 million in seed money put up by the Canadiens to help raise awareness and educate young people, all employees of the organization will be required to receive training on respect and consent, along with the organization putting an emphasis on hiring women in key positions in the hockey operations department. It’s the training element that will be key here and we can only hope that owner Geoff Molson and GM Marc Bergevin will both listen intently and take notes. Because they’re the ones who are most responsible for all of this. Had they had some of this training before the draft, perhaps they would have realized what almost everyone else clearly saw – that selecting this young man was a huge mistake, particularly in light of the fact that he had asked not to be drafted at all this year. The key decision makers – namely Bergevin, who made the pick, and Molson, who signed off on it – need to be made aware of the fact that their decision was tone deaf, ill-advised and selfish. It reflected badly on them, the organization, the NHL and the culture of the game. And it could have been avoided had either of them thought for one minute about something beyond how a right-shot defenseman could one day run their power play. Only then will the Canadiens have succeeded.
At least now the Canadiens are listening to people who know much more about this than they do. For example, Mailloux won’t be taking his message out to young people anytime soon because those who know have told the Canadiens he’s not even close to being ready to do that. “Following conversations we had with outside counsel sexual therapists, it was not recommended that Logan go and speak to other kids or youths or groups to talk about what he did and what happened,” said Canadiens’ vice-president, community engagement Genevieve Paquette. “He needs to complete his own journey to have the credibility to talk about this. We need to make sure about when he speaks about what happened…he needs to have completed his journey as a person.”
And that is exactly the case for those who thought the idea of drafting Logan Mailloux was a good one.
I think that the Canadiens have been the first team to really step forward with an 'action plan', because it is a real problem in hockey. That's one step forward. The Mailloux pick was three steps back. They really dug themselves into a hole.
Mailloux didn't get his victim's consent before showing an explicit picture of her to others.
The Canadiens followed that up by drafting Mailloux without his consent.