Toronto coach Ron Wilson said on the eve of the free agency period on July 1 that the Leafs could be pursuing the Sedin twins, which the NHL said was a tampering violation. (Dave Sandford/Getty Images)The NHL has fined the Toronto Maple Leafs an undisclosed amount of money for tampering following allegations by the Vancouver Canucks.
The league determined that Leafs coach Ron Wilson broke the tampering bylaw when he made comments during a radio interview in July about Vancouver forwards Daniel and Henrik Sedin.
Leafs general manger Brian Burke was exonerated by the league after comments he made at the NHL draft in late June surfaced on a Leafs TV documentary about the event.
A statement issued by the NHL on Wednesday by deputy commissioner Bill Daly stated that Wilson "violated the provisions of NHL Bylaw 15 relating to inappropriate public comments by speaking generally to his club's potential interest in negotiating with Daniel and Henrik Sedin" before their deals expired.
Wilson said on the eve of the July 1 free agency period that the Leafs could be pursuing the Sedin twins.
"You're hearing right now — and this sounds very contradictory — but there is a real possibility I would think that we would be going after the Sedins. Let's just speculate there," he said on Toronto's Fan 590 radio station, which prompted the NHL to investigate.
But the league dismissed Vancouver's bigger worry that the Leafs had engaged in other tampering when it came to the Sedins.
The Canucks filed a complaint when Burke's comments at the draft surfaced during the recent broadcast of a documentary on Leafs about the Toronto GM .
Burke said that Vancouver was shopping Alex Burrows and Kevin Bieksa, who are still with the Canucks.
Vancouver GM Mike Gillis was upset at the comments and voiced his concerns earlier this week on a Vancouver radio show.
"While unfortunate and inappropriate, the inclusion of a brief reference to the names of a pair of current Vancouver Canucks players in a television segment that aired once on Leafs TV last week did not constitute a tampering offence under league rules," the NHL's statement read.
The league also warned the Leafs that they will face more discipline if "any future inappropriate conduct on their part that may cause, or may reasonably be perceived to cause, damage to the Canucks' franchise, or its relationship with its existing players and/or employees."
