Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz erupts over fair questions about Kyle Beach cover-up

Frank Seravalli
Frank Seravalli(frank_seravalli)
Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz erupts over fair questions about Kyle Beach cover-up

The Chicago Blackhawks scheduled a seemingly benign midseason, ‘town hall’-style exchange between team leadership, season-ticket holders and reporters before their Wednesday night finale of the first half of a disastrous season, both on and off the ice.

It was supposed to be a cordial, even optimistic public gathering – a chance for fans and media to get answers, for the team to provide hope amidst a lost season and insight on an ongoing GM search.

That was, until Blackhawks owner and chairman Rocky Wirtz derailed the event with a since-viral clip – that was streamed live on the team’s social media feeds – in which he erupted on two different reporters for asking questions about the team’s progress since an independent investigation revealed in November that team leadership covered up a sexual assault suffered by former player Kyle Beach back in 2010.

The questions, from The Athletic‘s Mark Lazerus and the Chicago Tribune‘s Phil Thompson, were fair and professional.

Wirtz and the Blackhawks undoubtedly knew they were coming, too, since it was the first time that Wirtz and senior leadership were available for questions since they were exonerated for wrongdoing in the November report.

No matter.

Wirtz, 69, snapped at both questions, which were more asking about the steps the team has taken in the weeks since – and less about the events that transpired themselves.

Here is the clip of the exchange, with a transcript that follows:

Lazerus: My question is for Danny. I know we’re looking forward here, but I think we have to look back, also. I think much of what happened to Kyle Beach stemmed from the power imbalance between a coach and a player and the powerlessness of a player in that situation. So what are the Blackhawks doing, what have the Blackhawks done, what will the Blackhawks do to empower a player in a similar situation to make sure that doesn’t happen again?

Rocky Wirtz: I’m going to answer the question, not Danny. I think the report speaks for itself. The people that were involved are no longer here. We’re not looking back at 2010, we’re looking forward. And we’re not going to talk about 2010.

Lazerus: I’m not talking about 2010.

Rocky Wirtz: I know. I’m not, either. We’re not going to talk about what happened. We’re moving forward. That is my answer. Now, what’s your next question.

Danny Wirtz: I can pick up, too, what we are doing today, and I think —

Rocky Wirtz: No, that’s none of your business. That’s none of your business. What we’re going to do today is our business. I don’t think it’s any of your business.

Lazerus: How is it not my business?

Rocky Wirtz: Because I don’t think it’s any of your business. You don’t work for the company. If somebody in the company asks that question, we’ll answer it. And I think you should get on to the next subject. We’re not going to talk about Kyle Beach. We’re not going to talk about anything that happened. Now we’re moving on. What more do I have to say? You want to keep asking the same question? Ask the next question.

That’s it. The anger in Wirtz’s voice, his posture, his defiance said almost as much as his words.

His response was not only tone deaf, but frankly unbelievable for an organization – once considered the NHL’s gold standard after hoisting three Stanley Cups in a five-year period – that is desperately seeking to win back fan and community trust.

Then given another opportunity later in the town hall to change course, Wirtz doubled down on a follow-up question from Thompson by saying that the events of 2010 were “old business.”

As mentioned, this was the first time Wirtz was made available to answer questions about “old business,” which just happened to be one of the biggest scandals in hockey history – one that embroiled multiple NHL franchises, caused the ouster of a GM and Hall of Fame coach, and most importantly, may have ruined the career of a promising first-round pick prospect.

Old business? Yikes. It couldn’t be old business if Wirtz had never been asked to begin with.

Sorry, there is no “that’s none of your business” defense when an investigation proved that the institution in charge of drafting and developing young talent knowingly continued to subject that talent to a sexual predator.

Wayne Gretzky responded to Wirtz’s outburst during TNT’s national broadcast on Wednesday night.

“From every point of view this is just a horrible scenario, what happened to [Kyle Beach],” Gretzky said. “As a parent, you’re sitting there going, my son’s 18, he’s going to maybe be drafted by that team … I want to know my 18-year-old son is going to be protected.”

To reiterate, these are questions Wirtz and the Blackhawks knew were coming.

And this was not the first time they have responded insensitively since the findings were released. When Beach revealed himself as John Doe, they apologized, but not for the fact that they actively attempted to discredit him after making his complaints – both in 2010 and in 2021.

In the wake of Wednesday’s comments, Wirtz’s fitness to lead the Blackhawks has already been questioned. They were as attention grabbing and alarming as the NHL’s own tone deaf press conference between commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly about the incident.

The Blackhawks and Beach reached a confidential, multi-million dollar monetary settlement on Dec. 15, saying then that they hoped the resolution would bring “peace and closure” to Beach.

It’s unlikely that Wirtz’s words, brushing Beach aside again, helped in that regard on Wednesday.

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