Hockey News Roundup 04/28/25
(WARNING: This article is NSFW and contains descriptions of sexual assault)
IIHF Tournaments Continue
The IIHF tournament that most are paying attention to right now is the U18 Men’s World Championship. Today, as of publishing, is the final day of preliminary games. Here are the standings as of writing:
Group A
Canada (9 points)
Finland (7)
Slovakia (5)
Latvia (2)
Norway (1)
Group B
USA (9)
Sweden (6)
Germany (5)
Czechia (4)
Switzerland (0)
Elimination games will begin on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, three tournaments did end this past week. We’ll stick with U18 Men’s tournaments first, and Division I - Group A declared a champion. Denmark will get promoted after clinching gold while Ukraine got silver and Kazakhstan clinched bronze. Going further down in U18 Men’s tournaments, we have Division II - Group B. There we have Spain who clinched the gold with Australia clinching silver and Chinese Taipei gaining bronze. The only adult tournament to finish this week was Men’s Division III - Group A. In that tournament, we saw Kyrgyzstan win gold while Turkmenistan won silver. Turkey ended with bronze.
Mistrial Declared in 2018 Canada WJC Case
The long-awaited trial for the five former Canadian WJC players accused of sexual assault started. A jury was selected and the trial began. What allegedly happened during the assault was revealed during the trial. According to the CBC:
Specifically, without consent, the Crown says McLeod, Hart and Dubé obtained oral sex from her, Dubé slapped her on her buttocks and Formenton had vaginal sex with her in the bathroom. Also without her consent, Foote did the splits while naked over E.M.’s face, the Crown argues.
McLeod also had vaginal sex one more time with E.M. without her consent, according to the Crown. He faces the additional charge of ‘being a party to the offence’ because he “assisted and encouraged his teammates to engage sexually” with E.M., “knowing she had not consented.”
Also, it was revealed that McLeod sent a text to a group chat saying, “who wants to be in a 3-way quick. 209 -mikey”.
The trial didn’t last long, though. On Friday a mistrial was declared and a new jury was selected. We do not know the reason for the mistrial. The new jury is 9 women and 5 men. By the time this article has been published, the trial will have resumed.
The PWHL Expands to Vancouver
The first expansion team for the PWHL has been announced and it is Vancouver. They are being called “PWHL Vancouver” currently as they have not decided on branding yet. Their primary color is Pacific Blue and their secondary color is Cream. Their home games will be played at Pacific Coliseum, which was the home of the Vancouver Canucks from 1970-1995. Most recently, it was home of the Vancouver Giants in the WHL, but they left in 2016.
In the PWHL, New York Sirens goaltender Corinne Schroeder has had two straight shutout wins, most recently this weekend, making 33 saves in a 2-0 victory over the Minnesota Frost…Klára Peslarová, goaltender for the Boston Fleet, is the third goaltender in league history to earn a shutout in her first career start…In the AHL, Justin Hryckowian of the Texas Stars was named the league’s most outstanding rookie…Meanwhile, Andrew Poturalski of the San Jose Barracuda was named the AHL’s MVP…The first round of AHL playoffs is over, and the teams moving on are: Abbotsford Canucks, Coachella Valley Firebirds, Cleveland Monsters, Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Providence Bruins, Rockford IceHogs, and San Jose Barracuda…In the ECHL, Alec Butcher of the Tulsa Oilers has been suspended two games and fined for misconduct…In the NHL, the Seattle Kraken fired head coach Dan Bylsma, promoted Ron Francis to team president, and Jason Botterill was named general manager…New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury was signed to a multi-year extension…St. Louis Blues defender Cam Fowler became the eighth defender in league history to get five points in a single playoff game…Brandon Hagel of the Tampa Bay Lightning was suspended one game for interference against Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov…Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, who has not played in an NHL game since 2022, returned this past week and after 1,041 days, scored a goal…The New York Islanders will not renew the contract of general manager Lou Lamoriello…Overseas in the KHL, the semifinal matchups will be: Salavat Yulaev vs. Lokomotiv and Dynamo Moscow vs. Traktor…In Finland’s Liiga, Ilves won the bronze medal by defeating Luko 5-4…In Denmark’s Metal Ligaen, the Odense Bulldogs won the championship, defeating the Herning Blue Fox in five games.
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