OHL head defends 'firm and final' call on London Knights player's suspension
A request to the Ontario Hockey League for a reduction in Landon Sim’s five-game suspension has hit a brick wall.
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A request to the Ontario Hockey League for a reduction in Landon Sim’s five-game suspension has hit a brick wall.
OHL commissioner David Branch confirmed Tuesday the London Knight forward’s lengthy ban that included calling Saginaw captain Braden Hache an inappropriate name was “firm and final.” He also pointed out league suspensions of less than 10 games are not eligible for appeal and he did not consider anything Hache said because it was never included in the referees’ report by Joe Monette and Jason Faist after Game 5 of the Western Conference final last Friday.
“The five games encompasses an inappropriate comment under our diversity program,” Branch said, “and violation of our pre-game warmup policy by body-checking an opposing player.”
Sim sat out London’s Game 6 clincher Sunday and is due to miss the first four games of the OHL championship against Oshawa starting Thursday at Budweiser Gardens.
Andrew Maloney, Sim’s agent through Maloney and Thompson Sports Management, noted the 19-year-old Blues prospect apologized to Hache immediately after the game for making a comment that implied the Spirit over-age defenceman was “soft.”
“The issue is, there is no due process in the league,” Maloney said. “Dave (Branch) has done an unbelievable job running the league with his strategic vision. But in this instance, there was no hearing, no written decision and no way to appeal it. There is a conflict of interest here, whether you want to say it’s perceived or actual.
“At the very least, there is a perception issue.”
Branch originally had told the Sim camp he would give this matter further thought, but opted to stick with his original five-game decision. He did mention in discipline cases that number 10 games or more, an appeal would be heard by a league executive council made up of governors, not the commissioner.
London Knights associate GM Rob Simpson said Sim was spurred by a Hache threat when the Saginaw player told Sim he was going to try to injure his shoulder again.
The team also contends Braden Hache, whose father Conrad is the OHL’s referee-in-chief, went over to one of the officials and started talking to him about the incident.
Branch said the league removed all conflict of interest by appointing interim referee-in-chief Scott Oakman for the playoffs and Memorial Cup tournament after Conrad Hache recused himself. He indicated the hiring and assigning of officials is a collective approach and that one person doesn’t have the authority.
“We have six officiating managers and together, they make that decision,” Branch said. “There has been no violation in the integrity of the game and how it’s played.”
There have been a handful of noteworthy suspensions in the OHL this spring. Kaleb Lawrence is serving his second five-game suspension of the playoffs, this time for a cross-check to the neck of Saginaw defenceman Zayne Parekh. North Bay captain Liam Arnsby served six games for a head check on Kingston forward Linus Hemstrom while Mississauga defenceman Stevie Leskovar and Saginaw rearguard James Guo were handed five games for slashes to the head of opposing players.
The Sim five-gamer certainly required a closer look and deserved more of an investigation beyond a referee’s report. There is a case to be made it was unique enough to be handled in the same manner as suspensions of 10 games or more.
“This kid worked his whole life to be in the OHL finals,” Maloney said. “Sport is supposed to be fun, but also fair and equitable. The perception of fairness goes away when you have situations like this that are dealt with by one person completely arbitrarily with no accountability to anyone.”
rpyette@postmedia.com
@RyanatLFPress
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