It's been the summer of suspected repeat offenders in the NHL, what with alleged sexual assault cases (Mike Ribeiro settled out of court with his nanny, Patrick Kane is facing a grand jury next week), Mike Richards getting caught "smuggling" prescription medication across the Canada/U.S. border, and Tyler Seguin "partying too loudly" in Toronto.
And that's in addition to first-time offenders Jarred Stoll (ecstasy and cocaine possession) and Slava Voynov (domestic abuse).
For many of these cases, little is known about the actual facts, and the internet is filled with suppositions, particularly in the case of the harsher allegations (Ribeiro, Voynov, Kane), the notion of "innocent until proven guilty" usually thrown out the window on the sole basis of the players' reputations.
Which brings us to Seguin, whom the Boston Bruins traded to the Dallas Stars mostly because, at age 21, he didn't fit into head coach Claude Julien's defense-first system and would party into the late/early hours while the rest of the team was leading mostly disciplined lives.
Stars' GM Jim Nill was adamant that his budding scoring superstar would have learned from this, yet former Toronto Maple Leafs president Richard Peddie claims Seguin parties late, disturbs his neighbours and leaves his trash on his lawn, among other things. In the off-season. In the summer. Around Canada Day.
Perhaps one guy has to grow up, and it's Peddie. Except that because of Seguin's reputation, he's the target of the media's attention, despite the fact that he stayed home, didn't go to a bar, didn't get into trouble, and from my knowledge, didn't get into legal troubles either. So, essentially, he did nothing terribly wrong.
Now let's talk about what he does right. Such as playing hockey, enabling teammate Jamie Benn to win the Art Ross Trophy last season, edging out Sidney Crosby and John Tavares. He finished sixth in Hart voting the season before that, and both of his seasons with the Stars had him at a more than a point-per-game pace, both times scoring 37 goals with 40 or more assists. He's also played for Team Canada at the World Championships, winning the gold medal and leading the tournament in scoring with 9 goals in 10 games.
He's on his way up, and will be a star for the next decade. Here he is on card #CL-TS from Panini's 2013-14 Totally Certified set (and Clear Cloth sub-set), featuring a black game-worn jersey swatch from the Stars' former garbs but showing him with the team's new green (home) jersey and new logo:
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