Wild President Bill Guerin Investigated for Verbal Abuse of Employee; Won’t be Fired

Minnesota Wild president of hockey operations Bill Guerin has been under independent investigation following a complaint from an employee for verbal abuse, according to five of Michael Russo’s sources (The Athletic).

Bill Guerin has been the focus of an investigation following a human resources complaint by an employee who alleged verbal abuse in the workplace, five team and league sources have confirmed to The Athletic.

Michael Russo – The Athletic

We’re a little bit late to the party on this internal investigation because it has already completed, according to Russo’s report. Not only that, but the Wild and NHL have already decided there were no fireable offenses found during the independent investigation.

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Bill Guerin won’t be fired following investigation

Two team sources indicated that the investigations into Guerin’s alleged behavior was complete and the findings were delivered to upper management and ownership early this week. Wild management determined that Guerin had not committed a fireable offense, team sources said Wednesday.

Michael Russo – The Athletic

Apparently, it was an incident that happened late in November that sparked the investigation. That means it is as recent as just two or three weeks ago. Whether or not the complaint included alleged altercations from the past is unknown, just like the alleged verbal abuse.

We do not know what Bill Guerin is being accused of doing or saying. We just know it’s described as ‘verbal abuse’, which could mean a lot of things, depending on who is giving the definition.

We do, however, know who the complainent is. Russo reports that the employee who logged the verbal abuse complaint against Guerin is Wild director of team operations and player relations, Andrew Heydt, who has held that position for a decade. Heydt’s responsibilities include overseeing team travel, requests from players, etc.

This investigation of Guerin is completely separate of whatever independent investigation got assistant general manager Chris O’Hearn dismissed on Wednesday. According to Russo, it’s a very crazy coincidence that the two independent HR investigations where being conducted at the same time.

If true, I’m not sure that’s a good thing…