Categories: What's New

Kyle Beach agrees to mediation with Blackhawks; settlement talks back onBen Popeon November 23, 2021 at 7:01 pm

Former Blackhawks forward Kyle Beach, now playing in Germany, has agreed to mediation in settlement talks. | Martin Rose/Getty Images

Two weeks after talks seemed to break down, the two sides will meet in December for mediation involving Beach’s sexual assault lawsuit against the Hawks.

CALGARY, Alberta — Settlement talks between the Blackhawks and Kyle Beach are back on.

Beach and his lawyer, Susan Loggans, have agreed to mediation with the Hawks, Loggans confirmed Tuesday.

The Hawks had been pushing for mediation as a preferred resolution method for weeks, but Loggans had initially pushed back against it. Non-binding mediation will occur in December, Loggans confirmed.

Beach’s lawsuit alleges information also found by the Jenner & Block investigation that former Hawks video coach Brad Aldrich sexually assaulted him in May 2010 and that Hawks leadership at the time covered it up.

The two sides’ first attempt at settlement talks broke down in ugly fashion earlier this month when Loggans gave an initial financial demand that the Hawks deemed “extraordinary” and when the Hawks refused to provide their own initial offer in response.

Hawks lawyers wrote in a letter that it seemed “clear to us that we will be unable to resolve these differences through lawyer-to-lawyer discussions alone,” and Loggans told the Sun-Times she was “disgusted” by the Hawks’ lack of “fair play.”

But after Loggans’ Nov. 12 court motion again requesting the lawsuit be allowed to progress to the discovery stage — in spite of the Hawks’ still-pending motion to dismiss — was denied by a judge last Thursday, her options likely became more limited.