Mitch Love rumors: Insider speculates "allegation made by a woman" as reason behind Capitals putting assistant coach on leave

NHL insider Frank Seravalli suggested that an “allegation made by a woman” may be the reason why the Washington Capitals placed assistant coach Mitch Love on leave.

The Capitals announced on Sunday that assistant coach Mitch Love has been placed on leave while the NHL conducts an investigation that began earlier this summer.

On Insider Notebook, Frank Seravalli shed light on the situation.

“My understanding is that an allegation made by a woman who had a former relationship with Mitch Love,” Seravalli said.

Seravalli noted that several teams, including the Seattle Kraken and the Pittsburgh Penguins, were aware of the matter during their coaching searches this offseason. It may have influenced their decisions to look elsewhere before Love eventually joined Washington.

“This is not a new allegation, is my understanding. This is not an allegation that has been made over the course of his time while working for the Washington Capitals,” Seravalli said. “As this league investigation is ongoing, it appears that multiple teams had been aware of this, and that potentially impacted their hiring decisions as they decided to go in other directions.”

Before being hired by the Capitals, Love spent the 2022–23 season as head coach of the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers. He has back-to-back wins of the AHL’s Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award in 2021–22 and 2022–23. It's given annually to the league’s most outstanding coach.

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Fans react to Frank Seravalli’s speculation about placing assistant coach Mitch Love on leave

Fans jumped on social media to weigh in after Frank Seravalli speculated on the reason behind the Washington Capitals putting assistant coach Mitch Love on leave. One commented:

“Jesus Christ, Fronk, spit it out.”

Another added:

“So we’re just pretending teams don’t know who they hire until the NHL starts asking questions, huh?”

Here are some more fan reactions:

"Too much lovin from Mitch eh," one wrote. "What are the allegations??? Parking too close to a hydrant? Leaving the seat up? At the very least say it’s something related to behaviour within the relationship. Being this vague isn’t illuminating at all. Or don’t say anything," another chimed in. "This guy is younger than Crosby bdw," one wrote."Very unsurprising after how this off-season went," another posted.

So far, Seravalli has only suggested that a woman may be involved in the situation but hasn’t provided further details.

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Edited by Bhargav