Pittsburgh Penguins Facing Lawsuit Over AHL Coach Assault Allegations

The Pittsburgh Penguins are dealing with a federal lawsuit which was filed by a former minor league assistant coach and his wife as they are accusing the Penguins of negligently retaining a coach who sexually assaulted and harassed her and then apparently retaliated against him for reporting the incident.

Not only are the Penguins involved, Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who was the AHL GM at the time reportedly asked Jarrod Skalde to keep the reason for the termination quiet and the team punished him for reporting the assault and later terminated him.

From the AP report, more information on the case includes:

Jarrod and Erin Skalde sued the Penguins nearly a year ago in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, alleging former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach Clark Donatelli molested Erin Skalde during an outing on a road trip in 2018. The team is the American Hockey League affiliate of the Penguins and is run by the NHL club.

They also allege that current Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who was GM for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and assistant GM for the Penguins at the time, asked Jarrod Skalde to keep the reason for Donatelli's termination quiet and that the team punished Skalde for reporting the assault and later terminated his position under the guise of pandemic-related staff cuts.

Guerin is also the assistant GM for the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team. The GM, Stan Bowman, resigned from that job and from his job as head of hockey operations for Chicago earlier this week amid the fallout from the Blackhawks scandal.

A USA Hockey spokesman said no decision has been made on Bowman’s successor.

Follow along with Rick Westhead of TSN who will be pulling the cover off more facts of the story in the coming weeks.

Photo credit:   Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports