The Kitchener Rangers lawsuit against the Michigan Daily will never make it to court after the two sides reached a settlement today.
The Michigan Daily took the original story down and posted this clarification stating that they stood by the claim made by their unnamed source, but that if they had known more information, including the Trouba family's denial, and the OHL's investigation into the matter, they would not have reported the story.
So basically, all the blame gets shifted to the "anonymous source". Kitchener says they are not discontinuing their lawsuit against the source, which, good luck with that. I guess it seems like a fairly equitable solution for both parties. The Michigan Daily doesn't have to worry about court costs or Canada's terrible libel laws. Kitchener gets to maintain the illusion of innocence, even if, by this point, Kitchener claiming their innocence in illegally paying players seems akin to Homer Simpson saying his roast pig was still good once it was airborne.
It is interesting that this comes out exactly one week after the OHL's announcement of Windsor's penalties for illegal payments. As I said earlier this week, the evidence that the OHL was able to complete at least one successful investigation against one of their member clubs was a powerful marketing tool for the league, and helped give at least some level of credence when the league said they investigated the Trouba matter and found nothing. Though again it should be pointed out that with no money actually changing hands and Kitchener's insistence on suing, the OHL's investigation couldn't have entailed more than asking a bunch of people if they wanted to be defendants in a million dollar lawsuit.