Portland Winterhawks’ coach suspended, team fined $200,000 by Western Hockey League due to violation
Western Hockey League (WHL), which is a junior hockey league in USA, has suspended one of its best team’s coach Mike Johnston and fined the team heavily for breaking the rules and the regulations. The officials of league announced this on Wednesday.
According to the official statement which was released by WHL, the Winterhawks’ team would be fined $200,000 and would have its coach suspended till the end of this season and also the playoff games.
The punishment has been made because of the violations Portland team did in last few years and would have to pay a heavy price of it during the WHL Bantam Drafts as well.
They would not be allowed to pick any player in the first rounds of 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 WHL Bantam Drafts and in case they do not have choice of picking any player in the first round of 2014 Bantam Draft, they would be deprived of picking any
player in the second and third of that year’s draft.
Ron Robison, the commissioner of the WHL clarified everything by giving the statement and told that it is responsibility of every team to obey the rules and regulation and if they are unable to do so, they deserve to be punished like Winterhawks are. He
said,
"All WHL Clubs understand they are required to fully comply and respect our league regulations or they will face significant consequences”.
Robison also revealed that proper investigation had been done in this case and they found the team guilty so they have taken this step. He also mentioned that evidences of team’s activities are also available to them, as he added,
“Our independent investigation in this case revealed there were multiple violations over an extended period for player benefits that are not permitted under WHL Regulations and were not disclosed to the WHL. It should also be noted through the course of
the investigation there was no evidence of any payments or enhanced education benefits provided to players that would be contrary to WHL Regulations as previous media reports indicated."
There are more than three four rules that the team broke and details of everything was also provided by the league officials.
Tags: