Any team that was struggling with the decision of whether or not to select Logan Mailloux in the upcoming draft has now been taken off the hook. The top prospect has renounced himself from the 2021 NHL Draft, asking teams not to select him.
Mailloux, 18, according to reports in The Athletic and Daily Faceoff, was charged in Sweden with taking and distributing an offensive photo without consent during a consensual sexual encounter last year. According to Katie Strang and Corey Pronman of The Athletic, at least nine teams had already completely dropped Mailloux off their draft list because of the incident. Now, the prospect is asking for the entire league to pass on him. In a Twitter post today, Mailloux wrote:
Being drafted into the NHL is an honour and a privilege that no one takes lightly. The NHL Draft should be one of the most exciting landmark moments in a player’s career, and given the circumstances I don’t feel I have demonstrated strong enough maturity or character to earn that privilege in the 2021 Draft. If I were to ever have the honour of being selected I would want a fanbase to be proud to welcome me to their organization. I know it will take time for society to build back the trust I have lost, and that is why I think it is best that I renounce myself from the 2021 NHL Draft and ask that no one select me this upcoming weekend. I feel that this would allow me the opportunity to demonstrate an adequate level of maturity and character next season with the London Knights in the OHL and provide all the NHL teams the opportunity to reassess my character towards the 2022 NHL Draft.
Should he go undrafted, Mailloux could return to the London Knights and continue his hockey career. When asked for comment by Strang, the Knights released a statement indicating that they would continue to work with the young defenseman to “help him better understand his actions, the ramifications of his actions and [ensure] that this does not happen again.” If undrafted, he would be eligible for the 2022 draft. Mailloux was ranked 23rd among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting.
If it was the previous regime in Arizona, I’m sure they would have drafted him
*IF* he’s sincere and does reform his character, he might warrant a lower round opportunity. “Might” doesn’t mean guarantee, as he has a ways to go, but coming out in public and falling on his sword like this is at least a little promising. Some kids his age don’t ever get it, so maybe he’ll be different. We’ll see next year…
Good for him. I obviously don’t know the full details but this situation doesn’t seem to be as bad as the kid who got drafted by the Coyotes. Hopefully he can do some training or rehab and have a career moving forward. I will say though that this is kind of an empty gesture. Almost nothing really changed for him. He wasn’t jumping to the NHL this year and if he can show he is truly sorry, he’ll just be drafted next year anyways.
Being drafted and it being drafted is a big change, the kid did something really dumb at 18 years old, I think we can all think back to something we did at 18 that makes us cringe, and if you can’t your a liar…he shouldn’t have done that he should deal with the consequences but he’s also 18 and probably shouldn’t have his whole life ended by this, but if he isn’t drafted this year and tears his acl or plays like a moron next season than you are very wrong that nothing changed
Can you do that? If Team X drafts him in the 7th round, what then?
Correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t think you have to register for the NHL draft like the NBA or NFL, you are either eligible to be drafted or you are not.
Perhaps there is a detail or nuaunce that I’m missing, but this seems more like an Al Franken “I can’t believe you are lumping this in with those other things” kind of situation. Not endorsing it or saying he should have done it, of course, but proportion and perspective…
The kid the Yotes took tortured a developmentally disabled kid. Have you read what Trevor Bauer is accused of? Forget the NFL as a whole, just what the KC Chiefs alone have been up to? They got a parade.
Having said that, this move is actually all but certainly an agent telling his client it’s better to go in the third next year, than the seventh this year.
It kinda reminds mo of La’el Collins in the NFL draft years ago. Nobody has to honor the “don’t draft me,” but who wants to waste a pick on someone who is requesting not to be picked?
Off with his head!!!
But seriously, he did a dumb thing and at least seems to be owning up to it (or at least he has a smart agent telling him to own up to it), but forgiveness should be extended here.
Yeah, I can think of dumb things I did at 18 I’d love to take back.
But yeah, as MacJablonski phrased it, kids that age just do not fall on their swords in public like that. (How many 50 year olds would say those things without hemming and hawing and coming out with that smarmy and toxic “I’m sorry if anyone felt offended by any action I may have made” garbage?) If Mailloux is working on his character, I’d say he’s made a good start.
This dumb game of “i take the blame” and “i deserve it all so throw rocks at me” is getting people nowhere. Theres nothing more lame and pathetic in the world of TODAY than this stuff. Theres not a lot of things that make you cringe more than these anonymous commentators on the internet who judge young guys as if they are the pillars of morality themselves and never did stupid in their lives. Poor guy, to have your life ruined by some lunatics that caught you making a stupid mistake.
The issue isn’t someone catching him,he did something wrong, deserves to own up like a man which he did. The problem is our graceless cancel culture which immediately puts phasers on kill to anyone who has ever made any mistakes. Feel for the kid too. I can’t imagine the pressure of growing up in this nut job society that, rather than reconciliation, would sooner take his head off.
Yeah, I feel so bad for him. I feel no empathy for the woman who he illegally photographed and caused her home town to slut-shame. :rolling eyes emoji:
And I’m sure you have never done anything bad ever, right guy with the name wishing an old man would die because of a stupid hockey team. You seem like such a grace filled, forgiving person. Quit being such a hypocrite and pull the log out of your own eye before trying to pull the speck of dust out of another’s eye.
Yep, my username on here is the exact same as committing a crime. False equivalences are tight!
I am also renouncing myself from the upcoming draft to prevent the embarrassment of not getting picked. Also, like Logan, I am just trying to save face and and not actually sorry about anything.
So you know for a fact that he isn’t sorry for what he did?
Maybe he is, maybe not, I don’t know for sure, but what would you want him to do to show contrition? Sackcloth and ashes perhaps? ;)
Not 100%, but I will say, “p<.05" Solid biblical reference, by the way!
its nice to see the gang here is a little more reasonable than the Twitter mob that just assumes every apology is written by some PR firm and or/insincere. As I generally say, calling something obviously wrong a “mistake” is unreasonable, but I generally feel an action as the one commited is something you can reasonably be sorry for and learn to not do. sure it’s still a sexual crime, but he paid for his actions and really had no need to do this and did it anyway. i think this shows maturity, or at the very least it gives me reason to believe thia guy can learn from his actions.