There's been a lot of speculation over the past week about the future of NTDP players Jacob Fallon, Jon Merrill, Kevin Clare, and Matt Nieto, who were allegedly suspended by the team for involvement in a sexual harrassment case at Pioneer High School.
It's unlikely we'll ever hear the full story, but for now, at least we know the end. Jacob Fallon has left the program, apparently by his own volition, while the three others have just been suspended until the end of the month. Fallon was suspended for the better part of the beginning of the year for a drinking-related suspension, along with forward Shane Sooth, who left the program for the USHL earlier this year.
If nothing else, this whole ordeal is an amazing adventure in double-talk from those north of the border. On one hand, you hear strong condemnations of the NTDP program for allowing these horrible atrocities to take place, while at the same time, getting near breathless anticipation that whatever they did could be what it takes to get them to break their college commitments and go to the CHL. It's no secret that discipline begins where hockey ability ends up there--compare the treatment of Michael Liambas to what's going to happen to Patrice Cormier--but it still makes you shake your head to watch it. Who knows, maybe they'll get lucky and next time one of these kids will mug an old lady or something.