Here we go again. Someone outside the NWHL is providing a glimpse into the business practices and operations of the league by way of ‘leaked’ documents and information from anonymous sources.

Back in March, the league was exposed through released internal documents as having not paid a bill to Bauer. The NWHL quickly had to go into damage control mode to explain what happened and how the issue was cleared up.

In February, then league COO George Speirs was dismissed for allegedly "spreading internal and external rumors in an attempt to discredit his bosses."

In January, a report emerged Commissioner Dani Rylan held a secret meeting with Connecticut Whale players regarding their coach. This led to the resignation of the general manager, and later the coach resigned as well.

All of this is starting to feel like an episode of Gossip Girl.

The individual(s) behind the leaks are capitalizing on the opportunity to create a quick news story by providing compelling documents that show the NWHL in a bad light. There is a story there, and none of the blame should be put on the writers for reporting what was given to them.

However the person or persons releasing the information is banking on is the lack of critical analysis of what was brought forth. They expect for the reporter to ask for league comment - of which they will or won’t provide depending on the subject - and leave the story to fester until the next one comes up.

On Thursday night, the cycle started again when Meg Linehan of Excelle Sports released a scathing expose on the NWHL. Linehan, unlike many other bloggers who have rushed to post the documents provided to them through sources, did an extensive amount of legwork to vet her story other than just ask for comment.

The piece included quotes from an anonymous player who, to put it kindly, felt Commissioner Dani Rylan was incapable of doing her job ethically. The player could not provide any examples to what exactly Rylan had done that was so egregious aside from vague “misappropriated league funds, and threatened and lied to players.” The question of “how” was not answered.

The main focus of the article is on Mike Moran, who is described by Linehan as, “… a founding investor of the National Women’s Hockey League” and later as, “… directly involved in marketing the league … He also was directly involved in marketing the league, having sent emails to photographers asking about photo rights after the first game was played. His name was also listed as 'Chief Marketing Officer' in an email from Dani Rylan to U.S. National Team players …”

To Kate Cimini of Today’s Slapshot, the league refuted his involvement saying, “Mike Moran was a volunteer in the early stages of the NWHL’s existence and at no point was a formal investor.”

Linehan posted a letter from Moran’s attorney provided to her by a source:

View photos Courtesy of Excelle Sports More

A couple thoughts on this letter and other information included in the article:

• We attempted to make contact with Moran through his attorney, and have not received a response. One point of clarification we asked for was what exactly did Moran expect his money to be used for. Is it an actual loan with interest and a repayment schedule? Was he acting as a vendor or a consultant expecting payment for goods and services? Or was this a donation?

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