WHL says Wenatchee Wild head coach Kevin Constantine suspended

Article content material

CALGARY — The Western Hockey League says Wenatchee Wild head coach Kevin Constantine has been suspended pending an unbiased investigation into alleged violations of WHL laws and insurance policies.

Article content material

The league stated Constantine was suspended Sunday, and he’s not permitted to have any contact with any member of the group, together with gamers.

Article content material

The WHL stated the suspension got here after its unbiased reporting channel acquired a grievance about Constantine’s conduct.

The Wild beforehand operated because the Winnipeg Ice till their relocation to Wenatchee, Wash., for the 2023-24 season.

The WHL stated its safety community and Wenatchee Wild administration met with the gamers to deal with the state of affairs and supply assist.

Constantine was beforehand the NHL head coach for the San Jose Sharks, Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils.

He has additionally coached outdoors of North America, main South Korea’s Daemyung Killer Whales, Poland’s Unia OÅ›wiÄ™cim and Switzerland’s HC Ambrì-Piotta.

Article content material

It’s not the primary time Constantine has discovered himself in hassle with the WHL.

He was fined US$5,000 and suspended for 4 video games by the Western Hockey League for excessively punishing his gamers after a loss in 2006.

The Silvertips have been overwhelmed 5-0 by Tri-Metropolis throughout a pre-season match that season and Constantine had the gamers stay of their gear for a post-game meal and the four-hour bus journey again to Everett.

The league thought that kind of punishment was extreme.

“We consider that this sort of disciplinary motion on gamers in our league is unacceptable,” WHL commissioner Ron Robison advised the Everett Herald. “We have now a duty to verify the setting the gamers play in and the self-discipline they obtain will not be extreme. We felt this went past the conventional stage of applicable self-discipline.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Sept. 25, 2023.