Lamoriello asked point blank if he knew Reid Boucher sexually assaulted a minor prior to 2011 draft
By now, the news of former NHLer Reid Boucher pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a minor has spread across the hockey world like wildfire. The incident occurred back in 2011, while Boucher was with the US National Development Program, living with a billet family in Michigan.
Apparently, Boucher, who was 17 at the time, blackmailed a pre-teen girl into performing oral sex on him and then repeated the offense later on, threatening to expose her if she didn't do it again, as reported by the Detroit Free Press.
Boucher took a plea deal to get out of serving any upfront jail time, but is now awaiting sentencing, which is scheduled to take place on January 31st.
The Athletic's Katie Strang reached out to former New Jersey Devils GM and current New York Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello, who drafted Boucher back in 2011, to see if Lamoriello and the Devils organization had known anything about the allegations back then. Lamoriello's response was straight to the point.
"Unequivocally, our organization did not know about this incident."
When asked in a follow-up question whether or not he'd still have considered drafting Boucher had he heard about the incident prior to draft day, Lamoriello, once again, was a man of few words.
"No," he said, as clearly and concisely as one can.
Boucher played 133 NHL games split between the New Jersey Devils, who drafted him 99th overall in 2011, Nashville Predators and Vancouver Canucks. He is currently playing in the KHL with Yaroslavl Lokomotiv.
