A Damning Allegation

The young man pictured to the left in the Fort Wayne Komets jersey is defender Will Petschenig. His name may not be a household name at this time, but he's racked up some accolades in being part of the 2015 Memorial Cup-winning Oshawa Generals and the 2017 Spengler Cup-winning Canadian team. He spent time in Europe after going undrafted from his OHL days, suiting up for Geneve Servette for three seasons before playing with Biel HC last season. This season, he was offered a contract with the ECHL's Fort Wayne Komets, and it appeared that Will Petschenig may have found a door back into North American pro hockey. That is, at least until today when things took a very unexpected and somewhat strange turn as Petschenig was released by the team.

After missing three weeks of time after injuring his ankle on February 14 in a scrap with Indy's Craig Wyszomirski, Petschenig was back in the lineup last weekend. According to an article by Justin A. Cohn in The Journal Gazette, the team placed Petschenig on injured reserve at that time. And that's where things seem to veer off the tracks into what is now a crazy mess.

Upon his release today, Will Petschenig released the following statement that caused the uproar.

Click on the image to read the statement.

After Petschenig alleges that he was put on injured reserve without his signature, I went looking on the ECHL page for that transaction. There is a March 4 transaction listed on the ECHL site that shows that Petschenig was activated from injured reserve, but the February 14 transaction page shows nothing about Petschenig being placed on injured reserve despite Cohn's reporting in his article above. I did find, however, that the team placed him on injured reserve on February 19 retroactive to February 16.

If you read the letter above penned by Petschenig, the key part reads,

"A few weeks ago, my signature was used without my knowledge to sign a medical document that is commonly referred to as the injured reserve. The team excused this breach of trust by explaining that it was a necessary decision not to lose another rostered player - an action to help achieve their goals at my expense. Ultimately, my signature was placed on this document without my consent, something that is both unethical and illegal. I was made aware of this situation at our home game on February 19th, 2020 by a curious Komets fan asking why I was listed on the injured reserve.

"In the ECHL, the league requires approval and signatures from the Coach or General Manager, the Player, the athletic trainer and team doctor in order to be placed on the injured reserve. I was never approached or asked to sign this document. I reached out to the league the following day on February 20th, 2020 requesting a copy of the injured reserve document, where I was able to see a copy of my signature on a document I had never seen or signed. As a result of this, I was forced to sit for a fourteen-day period of the season."

Wow. That's quite the allegation that Petschenig is leveling against the club, but it seems the Fort Wayne Komets may be using the injured reserve list as a way to hold onto players they may want to keep while bringing in other players as reinforcements. The next paragraph will explain how that's possible, but it seems the Komets "parked" Petschenig on the injured reserve in order to bring in a prospect that may be able to contribute to Fort Wayne's efforts in winning a Kelly Cup. More that prospect in a second.

First, let's clear up this injured reserve list rule. As per the ECHL, "ECHL teams can have an unlimited number of players on the 14-day injured reserve. A Member may not count the date of the game in which the Player was injured as the first day of his IR. Once placed on the injured reserve, the Player must remain on the IR for a minimum of 14 days. Players on injured reserve may not skate in any pregame warm-up."

In reading that, it seems the Komets might have found a loophole for holding onto more than the 20 rostered players each ECHL team can carry by placing healthy players they want to keep on the injured reserve list. You may be saying, "Yeah, but the players have to agree to this, Teebz," and you'd be right if the team was upfront about these agreements. However, Justin A. Cohn writes in his article that his sources confirmed that "[t]he Komets do have electronic signatures of all their players" which are likely used for marketing materials. Instead, it seems that the Komets may have used Petschenig's e-signature to forge an injured reserve list transaction based on Petschenig's allegation.

Komets president Michael Franke told Cohn, "All I'm going to say is this: We followed the league protocol completely and, outside of that, we have no additional comment."

While Franke's comment is likely factually correct in how they followed league protocol for submitting the injured reserve list transaction with the required signatures for the document to be accepted by the ECHL office, it may have been better for Franke just to have said "no comment" and left it at that. As it stands, Franke's comments now put the spotlight directly on Komets' general manager David Franke, Michael's brother, and head coach Ben Boudreau as it seemed they may have conspired to move Petschenig to the injured reserve list by using Petschenig's electronic signature on the injured reserve document in order to sign a highly-regarded, free agent defenceman.

Who is that defenceman, you ask? None other than Canada West Defenceman of the Year and Manitoba Bisons rearguard Adam Henry. The day that Petschenig was placed on injured reserve - February 19 - is the same day that the Komets signed Henry to a contract. Coincidentally, the day that Petschenig was activated from the injured reserve - March 4 - Adam Henry was placed on the reserve list by the Komets. That happenstance seems a little too convenient for me to believe this wasn't coordinated by the Komets to sign Henry and get him into the organization after his outstanding season in Canadian university hockey.

Look, none of this has been proven true by anyone, and I'm doing this digging due to an allegation made by a player who made the decision to walk away from an ECHL team after he feels that something "both unethical and illegal" was done. I'm not a lawyer, so I have no background in saying that Petschenig may have a case, but it seems that if the Fort Wayne Komets did what he alleges has happened, something is very rotten within the Indiana-based club.

While I'd like to cheer for Adam Henry's success at the ECHL level after his stellar season here in Winnipeg with the Bisons, it's hard to be happy for him when he's the metaphorical pawn in what seems like the exploitation of a loophole in the rules and a player who dutifully suited up each and every night for the Komets.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!