Quoting: KooKoo4Kaapo
No. By mumbo-jumbo I mean the guys that are basically getting black listed before any verdict comes out. Innocent until proven guilty.
Yeah you know you're right, cause it isn't completely logical to avoid signing guys who have roughly a 36% chance of having sexually assaulted a woman in 2018! In fact, I don't know why more teams don't sign suspects of felonies...
Ok, fr tho, two things: There are still 121 unsigned UFA's including guys like Paul Stastny, ZAR, Sonny Milano, Phil Kessel, and Evan Rodrigues, so saying Sam Steel is on the market because of this is a bit presumptuous. I mean even if his name was completely cleared tomorrow, there's a pretty expansive list of players I'd sign before Sam Steel.
Secondly, if it was purely because of 2018, that's pretty logical, why would a team go out of their way to sign someone who might've been involved in sexual assault. It's fine if he was innocent, but if it turns out he was involved, they'd lose him instantly. In that situation, it's muuuch better to just sign Evan Rodrigues or Paul Stastny and move on.
Finally, innocent until proven guilty is not a valid argument when it comes to the NHL free agency.