Doug Gilmour and ex-Leafs/NHLers take cancer fight to the street rink
Any NHLer will tell you the most underrated members of a team are its equipment managers.
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'One hundred per cent,' said former Maple Leafs captain Doug Gilmour. 'You just look at all the hours they put in during the day. And at night, when we'd get off a plane and able to go right to bed, they're on their way to the rink to get our stuff ready.'
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It was a jolt to many Leafs and former NHLers to learn a decade ago that Scott McKay, Toronto's long-time equipment man in the Pat Quinn era, had a cancer diagnosis. He has survived, but the battle continues and friends want to help him raise funds and awareness in a big way.
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On Thursday, Gilmour, Curtis Joseph, Shayne Corson, Brad May and Raffi Torres will reveal Street Hockey For The Cure, to benefit the Canadian Cancer Society, the Scott McKay Foundation and the St. Michael's Hospital Foundation. Proceeds of the Sept. 13-14 tournament near the grounds of the Hotel X at Exhibition Place will go to reducing the financial burden of cancer patients throughout treatment, such as the Wheels For Hope transportation program.
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'It could be an aunt, an uncle and in my case it was a really good friend. Bob Lavelle,' he said. 'He used to be my marketing guy, the man who started the NHL player softball tournament in Niagara Falls. They discovered a lump in his shoulder when he wasn't that old and was gone.
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'We want to be there for Scotty, who has really given back to the community, despite his diagnosis.'
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The 3-on-3 tournament is open to ages 13 to 50-plus and includes a special division for first responders. Each team will get to meet Gilmour and the NHLers, while playing on a half-scale rink with dasher boards, netting and volunteer officials
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'We've done different thinks like this for Easter Seals and the homeless,' said Gilmour, now a Leafs club ambassador.
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Toronto Sun
2 days ago
- Toronto Sun
CHAUDHRI: Should hockey players acquitted in sex assault case get their NHL jobs back?
Four of the five former world juniors were NHLers until they were charged and the league says they're ineligible while the findings are reviewed From left, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote and Michael McLeod enter the London courthouse on May 20, 2025. Photo by Mike Hensen and Derek Ruttan / The London Free Press Not guilty is not the equivalent of innocence. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account In a decision that has rocked the nation, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, Michael McLeod and Cal Foote were collectively acquitted last week on all sexual assault charges stemming from an incident dating back to June 2018. Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia found the evidence of the alleged victim, E.M., was not credible or reliable. While my Toronto Sun colleagues have gone to great lengths to provide play-by-play analysis of the trial, dissect the evidence, and report the decision, as a civil litigator and employment lawyer, my focus is on the path forward for these newly acquitted players. Is there a professional career for any of them to return to? Four of the five men charged were active NHL players at the time of their arrests in 2024. Each was granted a leave from their clubs after they were criminally charged. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Following the decision this week, the NHL said the five men would be ineligible to play while the league reviews the findings. The NHL described the evidence at trial to be 'disturbing.' Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alexandar Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Callan Foote are shown in court in this courtroom sketch made in London, Ont., on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Photo by Alexandra Newbould / The Canadian Press The NHLPA, however, argues the players should have the opportunity to return to work and that the NHL's position runs afoul of the terms of their collective bargaining agreement. My cursory review of the collective agreement confirms that the NHL commissioner has broad disciplinary authority for off-ice conduct that is 'detrimental to or against the welfare of the league or the game of hockey.' This can include the termination of a player's contract. The collective agreement even confirms that the commissioner can apply these powers whether the criminal charges result in a conviction or not. So, theoretically, the league would be within its right to deny the five players a chance to return to the ice. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. But there's a major wrinkle. Before initiating discipline for off-ice conduct, the collective agreement also requires the NHL to have conducted an investigation into the allegations. This is where things may fall apart for the league. E.M. sued Hockey Canada, among others, for $3.55 million in 2022. A financial settlement was paid out to E.M. months later by Hockey Canada via a 'reserve fund.' Read More When the payment to E.M. was uncovered by the media, Hockey Canada issued a statement in 2022 stating, in part, 'We know we have not done enough to address the actions of some members of the 2018 national junior team or to end the culture of toxic behaviour within our game.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Only after settling the civil suit with E.M. and being exposed did Hockey Canada respond to the public outcry by initiating an investigation. How seriously would an organization investigate a case that it already settled and involved allegations that were four years old? A core principle of the rule of law is procedural fairness. If in one's employment a person may be subject to discipline, then they are entitled to know the allegations against them and be provided the opportunity to respond. There was no record of the players being investigated by the league prior to the E.M. civil case being settled. To open an investigation after the settlement occurred denied the players an opportunity to challenge the allegations with their own evidence. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. This very fact alone could be a strong ground of appeal if they are not allowed back into the league. It is no question that the evidence in this case supports a dysfunctional, power-bro culture within the world of hockey. The NHL is right when it says the allegations were 'disturbing' and the behaviour at issue was 'unacceptable.' But why did the NHL ignore said allegations when they lay at the league's very doorstep? To make a statement with any thread of conviction only when the world is watching isn't just gratuitous, it's plain wrong. It is much too late for the NHL to virtue signal in this case. And perhaps it also is too late to reasonably deny these five players a chance to return to their careers. Botched internal investigations do not mean there was no wrongdoing. But they can dull the knife when it comes to consequences. Perhaps through the gaping holes in the investigation of this case the players will be welcomed back into the league. But industries rise and fall on public perception. The NHL's future is only as strong as its supporters. We should know soon if now will be the time of reckoning or a return to the status quo. Have a workplace question? Maybe I can help! Email me at sunira@ and your question may be featured in a future column. The content of this article is general information only and is not legal advice. Columnists Toronto & GTA Columnists Sunshine Girls Columnists
Toronto Sun
20-07-2025
- Toronto Sun
SIMMONS SAYS: Blue Jays' LaMacchia hit a home run with Clancy
When the Blue Jays hired scout Al LaMacchia, one year before the team played its very first game, they didn't realize what a bonus it was that he happened to live in San Antonio, Texas. And it was during the expansion draft of 1976 that LaMacchia highly recommended a 20-year-old Texas League pitcher with a 6.77 earned run average for the San Antonio Brewers. The pitcher's name: Jim Clancy. 'If it wasn't for Al, I don't think we pick Clancy,' Pat Gillick said on the phone the other day. 'Al lived in San Antonio and he got a chance to see Clancy a lot. He really liked what he saw. He believed in him.' This doesn't happen often from any expansion draft in any sport: Clancy, chosen in the third round of the two-team draft, went on to pitch 12 seasons for the Blue Jays. He started 345 games in all, completed 73 of them, threw 2,204 innings as a stalwart of those early Jays teams. By today's standards of babying pitchers, those numbers are simply astounding. Roy Halladay went on to pitch 12 seasons for the Jays, as well, as a first-round draft pick, throwing fewer innings than Clancy, completing fewer games, making fewer starts. Halladay went on to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame for Clancy is found in the hearts of those who fell in love with the Blue Jays and baseball when they first began in Toronto. Those original players — Ernie Whitt, Otto Velez, Alvis Woods, Doug Ault, Jerry Garvin, all of them from the expansion draft — they're not just a part of history, they're a part of us. They were around when we were just learning the game, grasping it, experiencing it for the first time live, being so much a part of the early years of Major League Baseball in Toronto. The super-sleuth LaMacchia, who played more-than-important roles in the scouting of George Bell, Cito Gaston, Dave Stieb and David Wells with the Jays, went on to become vice-president of the club. He was in that position when the Jays won their World Series in 1992 and 1993. LaMacchia passed away in 2010. The kid with the guitar from San Antonio, Clancy, passed away at the age of 69 earlier this week. 'They both did great jobs for us,' said the legendary Gillick, who knew a little something about doing just that. THIS AND THAT This didn't have to be complicated — the return of Mitch Marner to Toronto for a game against the Maple Leafs. But the NHL made it that way. The game is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 23. It should have been played on a Hockey Night In Canada Saturday. And because Vegas plays the previous night in Boston, the Golden Knights won't skate at Scotiabank Arena on Friday morning, which means there will be no Marner game-day interviews. The NHL is in the entertainment business. There are only a handful of games to be concerned about schedule-wise when a new season is beginning. You don't take a big story and make it small, even accidentally. 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But funny, it isn't … If you remove the statistics from Vladdy's 2021 season — played in mostly minor-league ballparks, with 48 home runs — he is basically averaging 26 homers per year. He had 12 as of Saturday afternoon. Finishing with 26 is not out of the question …. This is the Blue Jays season in a nutshell. They won 4-0 Friday night against the Giants. The runs were knocked in by Will Wagner (2), Joey Loperfido and Nathan Lukes … Carl Yastrzemski, baseball's Triple Crown winner in 1967, a three-time batting champion and four-time OPS leader, retired after the 1983 major-league season. Seven years later, his grandson, Mike Yastrzemski, was born. Mike has spent the past six years with the San Francisco Giants … If you didn't love Scottie Scheffler before he won all his tournaments or dominated The Open as he has done the past three days, you had to embrace him for his honest and personal words about family meaning more than tournament victories. 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Edmonton Journal
17-07-2025
- Edmonton Journal
Maple Leafs acquire forward Dakota Joshua from Canucks for 2028 fourth-round pick
This time, Dakota Joshua is sure to stick with the Maple Leafs. Article content On Thursday, Toronto traded to reacquire its 2014 draft pick, sending the Vancouver Canucks a fourth-rounder in 2028. Article content Joshua missed time early last season in Vancouver when diagnosed with testicular cancer, undergoing surgery to remove a tumour. Article content 'Dakota went through a lot last season before the year even started and we were very impressed in how he handled such a difficult off-ice situation,' said Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin. 'Once healthy, he tried hard to help the team in many ways, and we want to wish him the best moving forward in Toronto.' Article content Article content After Joshua was drafted, the physical forward did appear at rookie training camp for Toronto, where he was hard to miss at 6-foot-3 and 200-plus pounds. But after a championship with Sioux Falls of the USHL and four years at Ohio State, he didn't sign with the Leafs and was traded to the St. Louis Blues for future considerations, starting with that club in 2020-21. Article content The Dearborn, Mich., native hit stride with the Canucks in the 2022-23 season, in which he played 79 games. He reached a career-high 18 goals in 2023-24, with an additional eight playoff points. After returning following his surgery in late November, he was limited to 14 points in 57 appearances. He was the Vancouver beat writers' nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy for perseverance. Article content All the while in the NHL, he has provided a muscular presence and had a memorable fight with veteran Leafs defenceman Mark Giordano a couple of years ago. Joshua, together with free agent signing winger Michael Pezzetta, is part of general manager Brad Treliving's effort to toughen the Leafs lineup with an eye to playoffs. Article content
