Former NHL referee Tim Peel allegedly 'reprimanded' young hockey officials

Hockey fanatics who know former NHL official Tim Peel are probably thinking of how often the referee was criticized for a variety of missed calls, or of the many controversies that plagued the final years of his career.

On Friday, The Athletic's Sean Gentille reported the chilling claims that Peel “reprimanded” two 17-year-old officials after a youth hockey game in St. Louis on Jan. 15.

Peel was reportedly upset because the young referees ejected former NHL players Matt Lashoff and Jamal Mayers, co-coaches of one of the teams his son plays on.

The account details how Peel seemed to calm down a bit during his lengthy tirade once someone took out a phone to record him, but continued for 15 minutes anyway.

Those officials also detailed incidents of parents shouting obscenities at players, who were as young as 10 years old.

Gentille reports that the representatives responded to the accusations against Peel, which led to strange consequences:

Neither SafeSport, Missouri Hockey nor USA Hockey have contacted the parents of the two boys, the families said. SafeSport and Missouri Hockey did not respond to a request for comment from The Athletic. Peel was ultimately suspended from coaching for 30 days, despite not being a coach; excluded from the referees' room for two years, although he was not a referee; and placed on probation for two years, but is not prohibited from watching games from the stands, according to McGlynn, Boren and Andrew Bethmann, board member of the Missouri Ice Hockey Officials Association.

On February 5, the officials' families filed a report with the police. Although Peel did not speak with Gentille, Peel's attorney, Travis Noble, claimed the report was “inaccurate” and that Peel “would never reprimand, chastise or say anything less than encouraging to a young person referee”.

Some might also take the opportunity to recall Peel's many misadventures in the NHL. Greg Wyshynski, now at ESPN, has chronicled Peel's polarizing presence to the point that a bar encounter between the two in 2016 became a story in itself after photos of a “well-served” Peel surfaced. gone viral online. In what was already going to be his final season in 2021, Peel was caught out by profanely admitting to penalizing the Nashville Predators for a make-up call, effectively ending his final season early after the NHL ruled to suspend it for the rest of the season.

We shouldn't forget that Peel also made waves on Twitter in 2022 when he posted the word “KAARMA!” after Nazem Kadri was injured by an Evander Kane hit in the playoffs. Peel deleted the tweet, but the damage was done.

And now there are these strange accusations that Peel berated 17-year-old youth hockey officials, which likely embarrassed himself and everyone else involved.