ECHL Player suspended following racist gesture
Jacob Panetta, 26 year old defensemen for the Jacksonville Icemen, has been suspended indefinitely following racist gesture in Saturday night’s game.
Source: Justin Wolford, Colgate Athletics
Just days after Willie O’Ree’s jersey retirement, which celebrated the breakthrough of African-American players in hockey, the scenes were very different in the ECHL.
Just 23 seconds into overtime, Jordan Subban of the South Carolina Stingrays, was the victim of racist actions perpetrated by defenseman Jacob Panetta. The 26-year-old appeared to be making "monkey-like" gestures towards Subban, who is Black.
The ECHL has taken immediate actions following the incident, and as early as Sunday morning, Panetta was suspended indefinitely. The ECHL will hold a hearing to assess the suspension and his future in the league. Furthermore, Panetta has been released by the Jacksonville Icemen, who later apologized on Twitter for his actions. The statement could read: "To be clear, our core values as an ownership group include one love and zero tolerance for racism or any other forms of hate against any group whatsoever,".
The Stingrays, as well as their NHL affiliate the Washington Capitals, have released statements condemning any racist actions. The Capitals tweet also included the words: "We must continue to eradicate this type of disgusting behavior from our game and society."
Other players came out to support Subban. Jordan's older brother, P.K Subban, immediately reacted to the incident on his Twitter posting the video of Panetta's action along with this caption: "They don’t call the east coast league the jungle because my brother and the other black players are the monkeys!". Georges Laraque, ex-NHL player also came out saying “suspend him for life!”.
On the other hand, Panetta took to his Twitter to defend himself. He apologized to Subban and his family for the impact his gestures might have had. Panetta followed by mentioning his actions were not racially motivated and that he was imitating a bodybuilder rather than a monkey.
This comes just a day after the AHL suspended a player for 30 games following similar actions. It seems like the penalty isn't severe enough for players to restrict themselves from this kind of behavior. Considering we’ve seen players suspended for 20 games following a cross-check, the penalty is blatantly unfair. This is the opportunity for the league to set a precedent and eradicate racism from Minor League Hockey.
