Leafs’ Mark Bell Suspended Indefinitely
Posted September 4, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Training camp isn’t even underway yet, but the Toronto Maple Leafs have already lost a player. Forward Mark Bell has been suspended indefinitely without pay and placed in the NHL’s substance abuse program.
The news follows Bell’s highly publicized no contest plea on an impaired hit-and-run arrest that took place a year ago, when the left winger was still with the San Jose Sharks. Bell is already scheduled to serve jail time for the crime, but his six month sentence won’t kick in until after the Leaf season is over.
Most expected he would be able to hit the ice this month, but many worried about the distraction his presence would pose, while others wondered if the lack of action by the NHL was setting a bad example. Their decision to make Bell undergo rehab may be an answer to those critics, although the 27-year-old insists his brush with the law has taught him a lesson and he’s now drug and alcohol free.
“I’m not running away from the mistakes I made,” Bell maintains. “I’m meeting it head on, taking the steps necessary to make it better, and learning from the mistakes that I made. Sometimes you think everything is going great and your life takes a turn for the worst. You deal with it and move ahead. Things happen for a reason, and this happened to me for a reason and I’m moving ahead in a positive manner.”
The St. Paul, Ontario native will need the approval of both the NHL and the NHLPA in order to be reinstated after consultation with program doctors.
Leafs open their training camp on September 13th. Bell is one of the new faces in the line-up, having been acquired in the trade that also sent goaltender Vesa Toskala to T.O.
Photo credit: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
