Slava Voynov of the Los Angeles Kings was arrested early this morning by Redondo Beach police on charges of domestic violence. Voynov, the 24 year old Kings defenseman was arrested at 12:45 am Pacific Time, with bail set at $50,000.
The NHL and NHL Players Association took quick action regarding the incident and have suspended Voynov indefinitely from all hockey related activities with the team. The length of his suspension will depend on the findings of a formal investigation of the incident by the NHL. Despite being arrested and suspended, Voynov will continue to receive pay while he is out.
The quick action taken by the NHL and NHLPA comes in the heels of a some very unfortunate situations for the NFL involving domestic violence. In those cases, however, quick action was not taken. While situations like these are never appropriate, you have to appreciate the quick action taken by the NHL. Instead of waiting on an issue to see what the public perception is, they have immediately suspended the player and began investigating the issue on their own.
Additionally, Gary Bettman was speaking out on the issue of domestic violence prior to the 2014-15 season. He confirmed that the NHL and NHLPA have been working together regarding domestic violence policies for more than 10 years.
“We as a league have more than enough authority and mechanisms to punish, if necessary, in the appropriate case. Fortunately we haven’t seen too many. But more importantly we focus on counseling and education, and in the joint programs we have with the Players’ Association we’ve been counseling and educating on domestic violence for more than a decade, I don’t remember the exact date,” Bettman said. “The security department does it in their annual meetings with each team, and the behavioral counselors from the substance abuse, behavioral health program also counsel and educate the players on those and many other issues.
“So I’m not sure for us there is any need for any code of conduct other than our players, who overwhelming conduct themselves magnificently off the ice — we deal with it on a case by case basis. I don’t think we need to formalize anything more. Our players know what’s right and wrong, and as I said, we have the mechanisms in place to hopefully not get to that point.”
Voynov’s court date is currently set for October 22 in Torrance, according to Sgt. Paul Ribitzki of the Redondo Beach PD.
