He Shoots, He’s Charged? How Far Is Too Far in Contact Sports

This episode helped Gardiner Roberts win a Mondaq Thought Leadership Award in Spring 2026.

What happens when a hockey hit crosses the line from rough play to criminal assault?

Gavin Tighe and Stephen Thiele unpack the legal chaos surrounding violence in hockey, sparked by a shocking stick attack in a recent Ontario Hockey League (OHL) game. 

The lawyers break down when on-ice actions like body checks, fights, or brutal slashes step outside the game’s rules…and into the courtroom. 

From historical NHL assaults to civil lawsuits and even potential criminal charges, this episode dives deep into the intersection between sports, consent, and the law. 

Whether you're a die-hard hockey fan or just intrigued by legal grey zones, this discussion will make you rethink what it really means to "play the game."
 
Listen For

5:44 Can a Hockey Stick Become a Criminal Weapon?

8:47 How Do Consent and Rules Impact Legal Liability?

11:34 Should Pro Athletes Be Exempt from Criminal Charges?

18:19 What Civil Lawsuits Can Arise from On-Ice Injuries?

Leave a rating/review for this podcast with one click

Contact Us

Gardiner Roberts website | Gavin email | Stephen email  

Transcript

Gavin Tighe (00:00):

If I am in a consensual fight with somebody else and I get popped in the head, I don't get the charge, generally speaking, there would not be a successful charge of assault against the person who punched me because I agreed to get in the fight. Hello, welcome to the next episode of Beneath the Law, Gavin Tighe here, Stephen Thiele. How are you? I'm good. He shoots, he scores. How are you doing? Oh, man. I hope he scores. He shoots, he hits is the problem.

Stephen Thiele (00:33):

I don't know. The leaps are not shooting or scoring lately.

Gavin Tighe (00:38):

No, the poor leafs. The poor leafs.

Stephen Thiele (00:39):

Especially in that second period, they seem to fall asleep.

Gavin Tighe (00:43):

Yeah. I don't know really what's to be said about our poor beloved Toronto maple leafs who are noticed so beloved anymore. I noticed that they've kind of fallen out of ... I never thought I'd see the day that the Leafs would be the third most popular team in professional sports team in Toronto, but I think that we're at that day.

Stephen Thiele (01:00):

Well, if you keep losing games and have everybody else on your shoulders in the standings, it's certainly not helpful.

Gavin Tighe (01:09):

No, it's not helpful.

Stephen Thiele (01:11):

But they got to stick to it.

Gavin Tighe (01:15):

Okay. Well, we're going to talk about the minor hockey, some minor hockey problems and really a larger issue of kind of sports and violence and intersection between the rules of the game and the rules of the world and the rules of the country, which is the law. So this all comes out of a really awful incident. And hockey, it's one of those things ... We're both huge hockey fans, but you talk to people who are from less hockey centric places. And it's so violent and it's just a bunch of guys beating each other up and there's an impression of hockey. And sometimes incidents like this mean they're not so wrong. I thought this was a really terrible incident. We're talking about a minor hockey game here in Ontario where a player was assessed a match penalty because he literally took a hockey stick. And like with a wood chop, like with a two-handed slug, slashed another player right in the face and- Right across his face.

(02:31):

Yeah. Terrible. I mean, vicious, vicious, vicious assault.

Stephen Thiele (02:38):

Yeah. Look, I mean, I play hockey every week still, Gavin, and it's a great recreational sport. There's some inherent risks, of course, in hockey, but when a player intentionally goes out of his way or her way to use the stick as a weapon to strike another player above the head, that's a violent act and totally uncalled for. That's not part of the rules of the game.

Gavin Tighe (03:14):

No, it's interesting. We really delve into a lot of issues with respect to that because a lot of things that are in the rules of the game would be an assault outside of it. So for example, if I took three steps and hammered you into a doorway on the street, I could probably get charged with assault and probably get convicted. But if I did that in a hockey arena, I would probably be the first star of the game.

Stephen Thiele (03:47):

Well, you might get a charging penalty for that kind

Gavin Tighe (03:49):

Of.

Stephen Thiele (03:50):

But depends if the referee saw you or not.

Gavin Tighe (03:55):

Yeah, exactly. So I mean, body checking is assault in the real world and it's perfectly legal in hockey.

Stephen Thiele (04:02):

Yeah. But you're absolutely right. But still within the arena, there are things that certainly can lead to some liability and suspension and criminal liability, civil liability. There's some different branches here that can be explored when a hockey player uses his stick within the arena to hit the opponent across the face, like the Brampton Steelhead's player, Luke Dragusika, not sure how that's quite pronounced, against his Oshawa general opponent. So I thought what was interesting is Luke has now received a season long suspension from the Ontario Hockey League, and I think that's the longest suspension that I've ever seen or read about for a hockey player in this particular kind of incident. He was indefinitely suspended at first, but then given a yearly suspension or suspended for the year. And there were also some other penalties imposed upon him by the league, which I thought was interesting in terms of being required to do community service, undergo some education and counseling, and that he needs to apply for reinstatement next hockey season in order to continue playing hockey.

(05:44):

And he's a young man. Well,

Gavin Tighe (05:46):

He hasn't been criminally charged though, right?

Stephen Thiele (05:48):

Not that I'm aware of, but what I thought was interesting is the OHL issued the following public statement. The deliberate use of a stick as a weapon to an opponent's head followed by further contact on a defenseless player is a dangerous and unacceptable act that has no place in the OHL. So the OHL concluded that he used the stick as a weapon in that public statement, and that is obviously a criminal offense. Yeah. It could be a very serious criminal

Gavin Tighe (06:22):

Offense. It could be assault with a weapon and it could be aggravated assault. He hit him after he was down on the ice, which is-

Stephen Thiele (06:33):

Absolutely. And it can be a common assault as well, right?

Gavin Tighe (06:36):

Well, there's certainly been interesting of this before. Anyone follows hockey may remember the Marty McSorley incident in Vancouver where he hit Donald Brashear with a stick and he was charged criminally and convicted.

Stephen Thiele (06:52):

He was convicted and the infamous incident in Toronto, and I can remember as watching that hockey game, Dino Cicarelli whacking rookie Luke Richardson across the helmet with his stick and he was charged criminally and was jailed for one day. In terms of Marty McSorley, I mean, Mary McSorley is a very interesting case because he was charged with assault with a weapon and received a conditional discharge. And that was important to him and would be important to any professional hockey player because that doesn't carry a criminal record and therefore it doesn't necessarily impact your ability to cross the border.

Gavin Tighe (07:45):

Which would be career ending for a professional hockey player in the NHL anyways, not necessarily the OHL, which is where the most recent incident happened. Well, actually they do cross the border. Am I talking about? There are teams in Michigan that play in the OHL. But in any event, the reality of it is that there's lots of precedent for criminal charges for on- ice conduct and up to and including the professional level. And in my opinion, so there should be. And it comes back to a basic concept, I think, in regards to both, frankly, civil liability and criminal liability. We've dealt with cases where players have been injured very seriously in some instances, career ending injuries with what I'll call illegal in the sense of illegal of the rules of the game, hits, et cetera. That may or may not have been criminal, but certainly would arguably raise civil liability.

(08:47):

In the criminal context, that's true as well. But the rules of the game, to my mind, are like the terms of the contract. That's what everybody agrees to. So there's a old concept of law that consente nonfit injury is that a volunteer cannot be injured. So if I agree that I'm going to go into contact sport hockey and I get body checked and I hurt my elbow or something, too bad for me. I agreed to play a game with physical contact and I took the risk knowingly and agreed to that risk that I could be injured as long as it was in the rules of the game. But when you step outside of the rules of the game, I did not agree to that. And I think that ultimately is the legal basis why some things that happen on the ice can be prosecuted both criminally or civilly or both, and some things can't.

Stephen Thiele (09:50):

Yeah. So I want to get your thoughts in terms of, I think when Marty McSorley was charged, the NHL actually issued a statement, which suggested that they didn't want to see any criminal charges out of that particular incident because the league dealt with McSorley by suspending him for the remainder of the season in the playoffs, which basically was a 23 game suspension. McSarley lost his ability to earn income while suspended by the NHL. And they also imposed a reinstatement condition on Mary McSorley. I don't know if he ever played after that again in the NHL, but- I don't know the answer to that either. But the NHL basically had issued a release indicating that they didn't want to see a criminal charge, but that the police had, Vancouver police had charged McSorley and the league did accept that process. But in a professional sport or even semi-professional OHL is the stepping stone in Ontario anyway for people to go into the National Hockey League in terms of being drafted, should police take a hands-off approach or should the criminal justice system take a hands-off approach when in contrast, if this happened in a beer league setting, the likelihood of a criminal charge would be much higher.

Gavin Tighe (11:34):

Yeah. I mean, I think it goes to the level ... I mean, it goes back to my concept of the consent issue. So for example, it's a defense to an assault charge that it was a consensual fight under the criminal code. So there is a ... If I'm in a consensual fight with somebody else and I get popped in the head, I don't get the charge, generally speaking, there would not be a successful charge of assault against the person who punched me because I agreed to get in the fight. So similarly, I think with the issue of the level of play, a beer league game is very different in my view than a NHL game where there are ... An NHL game is full contact.

(12:26):

It is a significantly higher level of physical contact than in your average beer league game. And most guys who go out and play beer league are not agreeing to full contact, though I've seen plenty of that and lots of fights too. But the reality of that is it all comes back to the same issues. What did the two individual players involved in the incident agree to in terms of the rules of how they would conduct themselves and was the conduct outside of the rules? And I think that then in terms of criminal or civil, it has to be so far outside of the rules that it is beyond the penal sanctions available to the game. In other words, it's not something that would be punished in the penalty box. It's something that requires a greater level of punishment because the conduct was so far exceeded the rules of the game.That to me is a way to look at it.

Stephen Thiele (13:20):

Well, but even in a beer league game, a consensual fight would not lead to a criminal charge.

Gavin Tighe (13:25):

Not necessarily, although there have been instances where it has. It depends on what happens. I mean, there have been people killed in fights. I mean, I remember the Smithers case we talked about. It was a consensual fight and it ended up in a manslaughter charge. I mean, there was an incident, as I recall, there was an incident in semi-professional, professional hockey in Italy. In Italy, right? Somebody was killed in a hockey game. There was the incident in the UK where the skate where someone was charged, a skate of one player in what sure looked like a pretty intentional act to me. I know it's hard to say. I'm not going

Stephen Thiele (14:02):

To- I think he actually didn't get convicted in my case. He

Gavin Tighe (14:05):

Didn't get convicted, but he sliced the throat of another player with the blade of his gate with basically what looked like a roundhouse kick. I mean, when you're going around with knives on the bottom of your feet, you kind of got to be careful.

Stephen Thiele (14:19):

But a professional league versus a amateur league, we call these beer leagues, for lack of a better term, or I guess colloquially ... I can't pronounce that word right now, but anyway- You have many beers. Yeah. Thanks very much. It's been a long day. You got enough. Yeah. But a professional league certainly has the ability to sense suspend players and they've done that. Certainly the NHL has a bit of a list of players who have been involved in stick swinging incidents who have been suspended going back to ... I remember these players, Ted Green, actually got a skull fractured by an opponent in a preseason game. In a preseason game.

Gavin Tighe (15:11):

It was a preseason game. But he really wanted to make the team. He's going to leave an

Stephen Thiele (15:15):

Impression. I guess so. Wilf Paymont was a player for, I guess, the Colorado Rockies maybe at the time, the pre to the Colorado Avalanche.

Gavin Tighe (15:29):

Tiger Williams got charged, didn't

Stephen Thiele (15:30):

He? Tiger Williams? Well, he was charged, but he didn't get convicted.

Gavin Tighe (15:35):

No.

Stephen Thiele (15:35):

He just want to stick.

Gavin Tighe (15:37):

I do think that there's a level beyond. Look, do I think that ... I mean, hockey arenas exist. They are in the real world, so they have to be governed by the laws of the real world, but there is something about the arena that if you enter into the arena, going back to the Roman terms of it, I mean, you kind of-

Stephen Thiele (15:58):

Oh, you're a gladiator. You're

Gavin Tighe (15:59):

Agreeing to be in

Stephen Thiele (16:00):

The arena.

Gavin Tighe (16:01):

So to me, it has to depart so far from what the rules of the game are, that it sort of exceeds the jurisdiction, if you will, of the arena in the sense that it then is subsumed in a larger jurisdiction. I don't know. Let me ask you this question. Let's say that there was a league that was formed that said, it's like MMA, but it's like MMA to the death. And you had fighters and everybody agreed that it wasn't the last man standing. It was the last man breathing was the winner and you had to kill your opponent. Everybody agrees-

Stephen Thiele (16:44):

Aren't there things like that in the world right now?

Gavin Tighe (16:47):

No, I wouldn't do that. No, but I mean, would we as a society tolerate that? I mean, is that something that people want to happen? I mean, I suspect, frankly, these days is an audience for everything, and I suspect there are some people saying, "Yo, that would be great." But I mean, I just think that the law's going to say, "No, no, no, no. This is a bridge too far. The law ultimately of the land has got to govern the arenas that are in the land and while they may be oasis, ambassaons of consensual activity that maybe go beyond the law, there is a point where it cannot go. " And so I think that's critically important.

Stephen Thiele (17:30):

Yeah. Look, I think the message for anybody who participates in sports, whether it's hockey or football or anything else, there are certain things that you agree to accept as a participant in that sport and the other things that are certainly well beyond what you would agree to and that the criminal code certainly has provisions within it that could land you facing some potential criminal charge, certainly swinging a stick as the hockey player did in the incident that we're talking about, could very well lead to a criminal charge. Oh,

Gavin Tighe (18:19):

I couldn't agree more. Or like but ending somebody in the face with a-

Stephen Thiele (18:23):

Or sparing.

Gavin Tighe (18:24):

... a hockey sick.

Stephen Thiele (18:24):

Right.

Gavin Tighe (18:25):

Sure. I mean, you could seriously, you could kill someone. You could kill someone.

Stephen Thiele (18:31):

Absolutely. But that's not the only thing that people should be aware about in that it's not just a criminal liability that you may face. You may face a civil suit. Oh, you will face a civil suit. We've certainly seen that before.

Gavin Tighe (18:47):

We've dealt with those cases. The hit from behind cases where people don't ... That is even probably more borderline from a criminal perspective. Somebody, a check that is a hit from behind and you've got someone prone and you break their neck and they're paralyzed, which is not frankly, sadly, and that uncommon of a scenario. I've certainly seen instances in my career where that's happened. And if the hit was illegal in the rules of the game, it is actionable civilly. There is a claim to be made on that in a civil lawsuit. And that's serious stuff. Well,

Stephen Thiele (19:30):

It's serious stuff, particularly if the player injured is a young person and loses a lot of employment. General damages are capped in Canada, but special damages are not.

Gavin Tighe (19:45):

Yeah. And I mean, and what if that employment was as a professional- As

Stephen Thiele (19:52):

A lawyer?

Gavin Tighe (19:53):

Or a professional hockey player. And the prospect was that this particular individual was going to be a very successful professional hockey player. I mean, we're talking about enormous amounts of lost income in that instance, aren't we? Potentially. Potentially. I mean, it'd be hard to prove, but not impossible. Depends on the person, I suppose. I mean, I think what people need to realize is in the heat of the moment, the heat of the game, but sticking with the rules of the game is important. And if you stray too far, far beyond them with this kind of activity that occurred here, I don't see why there wouldn't be a criminal charge. I don't see why there wouldn't be a civil charge if there was ongoing injury.

Stephen Thiele (20:38):

Well, it'll be interesting to see. I haven't heard anything that Luke has been charged criminally for what he did. I mean, certainly the player who was struck doesn't necessarily have to go to the police and lay in information. It was caught on video. The police can, based on the video, lay the charge if they want. Not sure if- It

Gavin Tighe (21:02):

Certainly seems to be within the realm of any number of other cases like the ones we've talked about,

(21:09):

That the conduct would certainly be equivalent to the cases that have seen criminal charges laid in the past. So I'm not sure why a criminal charge has not been laid here. I mean, I'm not necessarily advocating for it one way or the other, but it strikes me as odd that we've got these other cases, which have in fact resulted in convictions at the professional level for similar conduct why this case has not been. I don't know the answer to that. I mean, I don't know the age of the individual involved. We know his name. Is he a

Stephen Thiele (21:51):

Juvenile? Yeah. I'm not sure if he is or not. He has a few more years of eligibility left. Well,

Gavin Tighe (21:58):

Then he might be a juvenile.

Stephen Thiele (21:59):

He may be.

Gavin Tighe (22:01):

Yeah. So in other words, we may not know, maybe he was charged and they just haven't released the details of the charges because he's juvenile.

Stephen Thiele (22:10):

Well, they would still, I think, release whether he was charged or not. Anyway, Gavin, it's a very interesting discussion and people who participate in sports have to be very careful because none of them are above the law. In fact-

Gavin Tighe (22:27):

Even in the arena, if no one is above the law, I'm going to get my tagline right here if I kills me. Even in the arena, if no one is above the law, then everyone is beneath it. Thanks for listening, everybody. Please give us your comments, concerns, topics of interest for new shows, because we're always looking to chew on some meaty legal topics in future episodes. And special shout out to our producer, Doug Downs. Thanks, Doug, for sticking around late on a Monday evening. And if we don't hear from you beforehand, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a very happy New Year.