What to Know About the NHLPA's Investigation Into the Kyle Beach Case

The NHLPA announced on Friday evening that the results of an independent investigation into the handling of the Kyle Beach sexual assault case have found no wrongdoing on the part of the union, NHLPA head Donald Fehr, or the Substance Abuse and Behavioural Health Program. 

The report, which was conducted by the law firm Cozen O'Connor and presented to the NHL's executive board last week, was done to determine whether or not the players' association and its head were made aware of Beach's abuse back in 2011 and 2012 and performed their duties properly.

The report was initially meant to be released earlier on Friday, however, a reported power outage at the NHLPA's head office in downtown Toronto was said to have delayed the findings from going public until now. 

“We cannot identify any individual wrongdoing or institutional failures of policy by either Fehr, NHLPA personnel, or the SABH program concerning the handling of Beach’s reports," the report states. 

"Beach's warnings about Aldrich were not addressed on account of miscommunication and misunderstanding, rather than any individual or systemic failure"

In addition to presenting the findings of the report, Cozen O'Connor also presented a number of recommendations to the NHLPA about the ways in which to handle similar allegations of sexual abuse within the union in the future. 

According to the statement by the NHLPA, the NHL executive board has voted to keep those recommendations confidential for the time being, as implementing them would require further development by staff and implementation by the board.