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Shannon Szabados released due to ‘cancerous’ player relationship: Coach

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Getty Images

After making history in the Southern Professional Hockey League, goalie Shannon Szabados saw her pro career dramatically halted earlier this week when she was released by the Peoria Rivermen just two games into the new season.

The release came after Szabados, the first woman to ever play in the SPHL, signed there as a free agent in September.

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“After our first two games, I thought our goaltending wasn’t good enough to compete, and changes had to be made,” said Rivermen head coach Jean-Guy Trudel, whose name you might remember from a controversy last season. “We’re going to continue adjusting our roster as needed until we find a group on and off the ice that I feel can accomplish our primary goal here in Peoria, which is to build a winning team here in Peoria and bring our fans a championship.”

There was speculation about it being performance based, as Trudel released both his goalies after that rough start. There was speculation it was related to Szabados eventually leaving the team for the Canadian women’s national team for some upcoming tournaments.

But according to Trudel, speaking with Doug Harrison of CBC Sports, the catalyst for the release was a bizarre situation in which the team had to take on Szabados in order to get veteran ECHL defenceman Carl Nielsen to sign with them, and what Trudel called a “cancerous” situation in his locker room that resulted from it.

They both came to training camp seeking spots on the team, and Harrison indicated that the “two had been inseparable” after meeting at camp. Nielsen indicated that he would sign on if the team kept Szabados. It was Russ King, the agent for Szabados, who suggested that the two sign as a “package deal” with Peoria.

“I tried to do something to get this great defenseman that plays 25 minutes a game, and it didn’t work out,” Trudel told CBC Sports. “It’s the first time I’ve dealt with a package deal and I won’t deal with it again. I think it’s wrong for the game of hockey. Maybe I’m old-school but I like to coach players who deserve to be here.”

This explains the odd situation when Szabados was released, as Nielsen, a solid defensive defenseman, told Trudel that he was leaving with her.

Nielsen was placed on “indefinite suspension” by the team, rather than being cut.

From CBC Sports, more from Trudel:

“I’m paid to make sure my ownership is happy, that we win a lot of games, so I gotta do what I gotta do to make sure my team is in a good state of mind to win hockey games,” he said. “The last two days of practice have been phenomenal. It feels like a lot of weight has been lifted off everybody’s shoulders. It’s back to being a team.”

Trudel noticed a drastic change in team morale soon after Szabados and Nielsen came aboard, saying cliques began to form that turned a close-knit group into one that had become quiet and unproductive on the ice. “They were always together and it became kind of weird,” said Trudel of Szabados and Nielsen, a native of Lorain, Ohio. “Seeing the [other] players in the locker room, I just saw the situation being heavy on everyone. It was cancerous toward the team. I coach 18 players here so I need to make 18 players happy, not just two.”

According to a source with knowledge of the players, Szabados and Nielsen met at a hockey camp in the summer.

“The two are the perfect individuals for each other at the stages of their lives they are in. He had to take a step back due to a history of head injuries culminating last year. Shannon is one of the most passionate people on the planet about what she does, which allows her to play at in a league that has never had a woman play in it before,” said the source, who requested anonymity

“All they wanted to do was play hockey together somewhere.”

Trudel added to the CBC that he wishes Szabados the best:

“Maybe … if she had come [to Peoria] by herself, gave it her all and focused on the team, maybe [the outcome] would have been different.”

Holy [expletive].

You could choke on the forkfuls of innuendo Trudel is shoveling here on a woman’s pro hockey career, trafficking in the kind of conjecture that you’d expect 22 years ago from some military commander who’s sour he had to let ladies into his unit.

With the acknowledgement that none of us know exactly what was occurring behind locker room doors, for Trudel to imply the relationship between a woman goalie and a male teammate was “weird” and “cancerous” – two games into the season! – is irresponsible beyond measure, given the context. Hell, it’s out of line in the large majority of any player transactions in any league, where “locker room problems” are left unspoken (before being eventually leaked by media mouthpieces).

From the “package deal” being accepted to the trigger-happy reaction from a coach reacting to his high-school cafeteria of a locker room, this is one uncomfortable story.

But one thing is clear: Since Trudel didn’t mention any cancerous locker room factors, we can assume Storm Phaneuf was released for being horrible at his job. Thanks, coach!

UPDATE: Turns out that Szabados. will not be joining the women’s national team at this time, and remains focused on playing in a men’s league:

Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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