Rocky Wirtz apologizes again, Gary Bettman excuses him for ’emotional moment’ as Blackhawks fallout continues

The fallout from Rocky Wirtz’s Wednesday meltdown moved into its second phase Friday, with the Blackhawks and NHL starting their attempts to yet again build back the Hawks’ public image.

Most notably, CEO Danny Wirtz announced a few tangible new initiatives intended to ensure the Hawks don’t cover up another sexual assault the way they did Kyle Beach’s in 2010 and also generally improve their workplace culture.

The Hawks have built and staffed a mental health department to provide resources for players and employees, have installed a reporting process designed to ensure “any reports of non-compliance are investigated immediately” and will soon launch “an employee-led committee focused on aspects of culture,” Wirtz said in a statement.

Those initiatives will exist in addition to — and on top of — the league-wide policies and training that the league requires of all 32 teams, something NHL commissioner Gary Bettman emphasized during his All-Star weekend news conference Friday in Las Vegas.

“They’re doing all the things to move forward,” Bettman said. “They’re doing the work. The people who belong gone are gone. New people have been brought in. There’s training. They’re doing things above and beyond what we’re doing at the league level. They’re putting in a wellness department. They had answers for everything.”

The NHL isn’t going to sanction or punish the Hawks or Rocky Wirtz for Wednesday’s outburst, in which the franchise’s chairman said learning from the sexual assault scandal was “old business” that “we’re not going to talk about” during two fiery exchanges with reporters.

And although the league will continue to hold the Hawks “accountable to do the work,” Bettman largely excused Rocky Wirtz’s comments as a rare gaffe, not an indication of an unethical approach.

“[Given] what has happened with that franchise because of Kyle Beach and with Kyle Beach — which we all agree was horrible, and they acknowledge as well — this has been very emotional, frustrating and draining for the Blackhawks, and Rocky in particular,” Bettman said. “As they’re trying to focus on the things they need to do organizationally to move forward, it was an emotional moment which Rocky promptly apologized for.”

Rocky Wirtz himself, meanwhile, followed his first apology issued four hours later Wednesday night with a longer, second apology statement accompanying his son’s statement.

In it, the 69-year-old team owner said he regretted speaking on the subject at all — the question initially was directed at Danny Wirtz, after all — and also regretted what he said when he did speak.

“What I would also say if given another opportunity is that the first step is putting the right people in place,” Rocky Wirtz said in his second statement. “Danny and [business president Jaime Faulkner] have spent the past year understanding how this happened and where it is happening — not just in our locker rooms, but in youth locker rooms, as well. And they are fully empowered to put the right things in place.

“Again, I regret the outburst. I suddenly felt incredibly frustrated as I perceived we were looking back instead of looking forward.”

Danny Wirtz, in his statement, included a line stating that “Rocky and I are united that we will learn from the mistakes in this organization’s past and do the things that move our sport forward.”

But he steered well wide of throwing his father under the bus, or even criticizing his behavior at all — providing yet another indication of the significant power disparity between the two Wirtzes, even with 44-year-old Danny now operating as the team’s CEO.

It all sounds much better, much cleaner and much more professional than the out-of-nowhere meltdown on Wednesday. It’s still hard to fathom, though, how Rocky Wirtz could’ve been so unprepared — and allowed himself to be so overcome by emotion — when asked about a subject he surely knew he’d be asked about at an event he’d been given at least a week to prepare for.

The incident quickly became another public-relations nightmare for the Hawks — a franchise plagued with those lately because of how badly things are going on every front — and necessitated two days (and counting) of damage control and image repair.

The team surely hopes Alex DeBrincat’s participation in Saturday’s feel-good All-Star game, plus a steady stream of news regarding the general manager search, will gradually siphon attention away from Rocky Wirtz and calm the firestorm.

They’ll probably be proven correct, too. Their announcement Friday that interim GM Kyle Davidson and Hurricanes assistant GM Eric Tulsky were officially interviewed for the permanent GM role — the first two of numerous candidates — understandably diverted some eyeballs.

But the important questions moving forward are if the Hawks’ new initiatives will provide the necessary resources to improve their culture, if they’ll continue installing new initiatives and making positive change beyond this point and if Rocky Wirtz will involve himself in or impede those initiatives and change.

Friday’s nice-sounding words probably increase the confidence that those answers are “yes,” “yes” and “no,” respectively. But only time will tell definitively.

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