Scott Mayfield Part of Conference Call as Union Votes on Whether Outside Review is Needed

Anders Lee wasn’t the only member of the New York Islanders on the NHLPA conference call on Monday. Defenseman Scott Mayfield was also one of the roughly 80 players that participated in the meeting as NHLPA membership looked for answers into the union’s handling of the Kyle Beach sexual abuse allegations against former Chicago Blackhawks video coach Brad Aldrich.

During Monday’s call, executive director Don Fehr recommended that an independent investigation by an outside law firm be conducted into the NHLPA’s role in the matter.

“Obviously it’s a very tough situation. It’s something that never should have happened,” Scott Mayfield said. “I think everyone can say that. I think the biggest thing with the union is making sure we figure out if it could have been prevented and if there is a hole in the system, what went wrong and what needs to be done. That was what the call is about.

“I think they announced there will be an investigation within the union. That’s about it right now. It’s a tough situation, it never should have happened and it’s pretty sad.”

While there may be an investigation into how the NHLPA handled Beach’s allegations and the lack of support he received, ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reported that there had not been any discussion of Fehr stepping down.

Monday’s meeting was called following a bombshell report that was released last Tuesday exposing the mishandling of sexual abuse allegations by former Chicago Blackhawk Kyle Beach against the team’s video coach Brad Aldrich. The report indicated that Fehr had been contacted twice about the sexual assault allegations, but he told the investigators he didn’t remember the conversations.

Ahead of the call, Lee said that there were “a lot of questions that are definitely directed towards Don right now.”

The Chicago Blackhawks’ mishandling of sexual abuse allegations by Beach has rocked the hockey world since an independent investigation was made public last week.