The NHL on Wednesday condemned misogynistic comments made by Washington Capitals forward Brendan Leipsic and Florida Panthers prospect Jack Rodewald in a group chat on social media.
Their comments included vulgar disparagement of the girlfriends and wives of other players. The chat also described sexual conquests in graphic terms and included discussion of cocaine use.
“There is no place in our league for such statements, attitudes and behavior, no matter the form,” the NHL said in a statement. “We will address this inexcusable conduct with the clubs and players involved.”
Leipsic, who is in his fourth NHL season, apologized Wednesday for the comments and said in a statement that he recognized “how inappropriate and offensive these comments are.” The Capitals released a statement to several news media organizations saying that they would deal with the matter internally.
An Instagram group chat where the messages were posted was hacked, Leipsic said, and images from the conversation were then posted on other social media accounts. He said he and the other participants believed the chat was private.
“I am committed to learning from this and becoming a better person by taking time to determine how to move forward in an accountable, meaningful way,” Leipsic, 25, said. “I am truly sorry.”
Rodewald, who has 10 games of NHL experience with the Ottawa Senators, played in the Panthers’ minor league system this season.
This was the second incident of offensive behaviour condemned by the league this spring. The other involved racist remarks by someone who had hacked into a video conference featuring New York Rangers prospect K’Andre Miller, who identifies as African American. A string of racial slurs scrolled across the screen for several seconds during the live chat before the Rangers shut it down.
The team and the league were criticized for not anticipating trouble on the video conference because its platform, Zoom, had repeatedly been the target of offensive hacks.