IceDogs GM suspended, two players banned after OHL investigation
Published
The Ontario Hockey League announced Thursday that Niagara IceDogs general manager Darren DeDobbelaer has been suspended for two seasons and captain Landon Cato and goaltender Joshua Rosenzweig have been banned from the league.
The announcement comes following an independent investigation into allegations that players on the team violated the league's anti-harassment policy and its code of conduct.
The league says the third-party investigator interviewed 15 former players, coaches, staff and team officials over a period of several months and found violations of the OHL's Maltreatment, Bullying and Harassment Protection and Prevention Policy and the Code of Conduct. Cato and Rosenzweig were found to have contravened both the league's Player Maltreatment Policy, as well as the code of conduct including, but not limited to, Physical Maltreatment and Aiding and Abetting. The report also found that DeDobbelaer, who also owns the team, failed to maintain the confidentiality of the investigation as was mandated by the OHL.
As a result of the investigation, the IceDogs were fined $100,000 and stripped of their first pick in the 2024 OHL Priority Selection Draft.
A native of Brantford, Ont., DeDobbelaer purchased the IceDogs in July of 2022 from Bill and Denise Burke, who had purchased the team from the late Eugene Melnyk and moved the IceDogs from Mississauga, Ont. to St. Catharines, Ont.
The Burkes' sale of the club followed the suspension of their two sons, former GM Joey Burke and former head coach Billy Burke, in the spring of 2022 after an OHL investigation found the younger Burkes used coarse and profane language to describe a female IceDogs colleague.
DeDobbelaer's fellow Brantford native Wayne Gretzky is a minority stakeholder in the club.