It felt important to take a stance on this since the conversation doesn't seem likely to die down any more than it already has, and it's going to come up every time Formenton does anything on the ice this year. I know opinions are hot on this, going both ways. People are understandably getting pretty upset at each other over Formenton, both the signing and the criminal case he was a part of, myself included. I'm not going to re-litigate the Hockey Canada trial here. If you want to know more about it, the verdict and ruling are public and available online. The mods don't want to curtail discussion on the topic, but we felt that some ground rules are needed, so this is our line in the sand.

Going forward, you are free to say whatever you want about Alex Formenton, short of wishing harm or death on him. He's a public figure with some baggage, and if he wants to stay a public figure, then that's what he's signing up for. It was the same way with having Evander Kane and Stan Bowman as part of this team. If people want to take a crack at the guy, unfortunately for him, it's part of the gig.

That said, going after each other over opinions about Formenton's presence on the team is not going to fly, and will result in a one-game ban. For one, it adds nothing to the discourse and mostly just devolves into a shouting match. But it's also important to remember that there are other victims out there, people who probably aren't enjoying the experience of scrolling through the Game Thread and seeing everyone calling each other rapists and morons. We want this to be a place where we all feel safe and welcome to discuss our favourite hockey team. What we don't want is a situation where people feel like reading the game thread ruins their enjoyment of watching the Oilers or visiting the sub.

This part might upset some people, but the same goes for attacking EM. Regardless of how you feel about her testimony or accusations, she is not a public figure (that's why we only know her as EM) and is not willingly opening herself up to that kind of attention. You can, of course, freely discuss her role in the case and anything she said that is publicly documented, but any attacks on her or her character won't be tolerated. It's a fine line to walk, so do so carefully if you choose to.

We'll discuss penalties for repeat occurrences as they crop up, but the one-game ban is the standard for now. We know this isn't a perfect solution, but those are hard to come by. This is just to try to bring the temperature down as we progress through the regular season.

As always, the best way to get our attention when someone is breaking any of the sub rules is to report their comments. Be sure to also report trolls and spam posts as always. We check the Mod Mail when we have time, but we'll get notifications for reports, which will result in the quickest response. If you have any questions, feel free to put them in the comments here, or you can message us if you prefer to talk privately.

Love,

The Mod Team