Despite the incident in Sweden which saw Logan Mailloux charged with distributing non-consensual sexual images, and Mailloux himself requesting to not be selected, Marc Bergevin obviously sees something in the OHL defender with four career games. However, Bergevin, Canadiens fans, and fans of the London Knights will have to wait until at least 2022 to see the controversial defender return to the ice as OHL commissioner David Branch announced the indefinite suspension of Mailloux earlier today. Despite being necessary, this choice was done way too late and should have been done as soon as the news was made public.
Lasting until at least January 1st, Mailloux will find himself sitting out at least 29 of the 68 games for London this season, which is about 42.6% of the OHL season. The OHL has never been afraid to hand out harsh suspensions for incidents regarding harassment. In November 2014, the league suspended Greg Betzold and Jake Marchment for making abusive and sexist comments on Tinder, and Tony DeAngelo’s eight-game suspension earlier that same year for derogatory comments directed at a teammate.
Per the league, in order for Mailloux to be reinstated back into the OHL, he has to prove he has gotten “appropriate treatment, counseling, mentoring and or education” between today and the date of the request for his reinstatement back into the league.
Mailloux was a part of the Knights training camp, indicating London fully intended on using him on their roster. Back in July when the news first had broken, Knights General Manager Mark Hunter stated the team would welcome him back as long as he showed indications of improvement, as opposed to showing more of a strict disciplinary choice.
The league has always shown their displeasure, avoiding posting about the Mailloux selection as much as possible as to not draw any attention to him. But despite all the statements released and lack of attention, the league still has not done enough to ensure the matter is fully solved. I believe the league should suspend Mailloux for the full season, and not give him an opportunity to reinstate himself until the start of the 2022-23 season. For a league that has had a ton of controversy to it, with situations such as the Daniel Carcillo incident, or the previously mentioned Tony DeAngelo comments, they need to find a more strict way to show nothing like this flies with league officials.
The Knights will officially begin the start of the 2021-22 season on September 3rd against the Sarnia Sting in a pre-season contest, without the services of Mailloux.