Russian OHL player allegedly targeted with xenophobic comments during game

A Russian OHL player was targeted with anti-Russian slurs in an OHL game on Thursday night.

This was first reported by Rick Westhead earlier this morning before getting confirmed by Dan Milstein, who is the player’s agent.

Due to the player being a teenager, his identity has been kept anonymous to the public at this time. Milstein did include that the player played for the North Bay Battalion. They played the Sudbury Wolves on Thursday night, beating them by a score of 9-2.

This targeted xenophobia occurs in the wake of Russia’s invasion on Ukraine. It’s resulted in a lot of sanctions put in place on Russia economically as well as the sporting world. Russia has seen a lot of sporting events that they were hosting pull out, like the 2023 World Juniors, as well as several leagues banning Russian athletes or at least not allowing them to play under the Russian flag.

The news of the targeted harassment also comes just two days after the CHL announced it was cancelling the 2022 Canada-Russia Super Series.

Milstein also mentioned that a client received xenophobic comments from a professor in Texas over LinkedIn but did not specify whether it was the same client or not.