Dusty Imoo will not be joining the Toronto Marlies as their goaltending coach after the Toronto Maple Leafs announced his firing on Monday afternoon.
The hiring of Duty Imoo initially made sense for the Toronto Maple Leafs. However, after some easily accessible investigating, that quickly turned into a terrible decision and the team renounced Imoo’s hiring before he even got started.
Imoo was a professional goaltender for a long time, playing in various leagues across the world. However, he became famous in the hockey world when he was hired with the Los Angeles Kings as their goaltending coach.
During his time in LA, Imoo was instrumental in Jack Campbell’s development and is a main reason why he’s a starting goaltender today.
As such, the organization initially hired Imoo because they’d hope that he could do the same for some of their young goalies with the Toronto Marlies. With Ian Scott and Joseph Woll ready to make a big step, the Leafs had hoped that Imoo could help develop them and turn them into NHL goalies one day.
However, Imoo will fortunately never get that opportunity.
Toronto Maple Leafs Make Right Decision to Fire Imoo
Imoo liked Tweets that were transphobic, racist, pro-insurrection and anti-vax. These are not the views of someone the Toronto Maple Leafs want to, or should, associate with.
For an organization that strongly believes in Black Lives Matter, the Hockey Diversity Alliance and many other progressive issues designed to improve hockey culture, employing this person would be one of the most hypocritical things they could have done.
— Toronto Marlies (@TorontoMarlies) August 10, 2021
The Leafs obviously believe in setting a good example for the community and in embracing the values that often get talked up in hockey but sometimes end up coming off as superficial. Hockey culture can be quite toxic at times and it’s important that the Leafs are taking steps to rectify that.
There are going to be those unhappy with the Leafs bending to public pressure, but it’s important to note that Imoo isn’t being persecuted for his private thoughts. The Leafs are not insisting that people share their political beliefs, they are just setting a very low bar and requiring a minimum of human decency. Imoo publicly stated his support for extremism and hate, and brought this on himself.
Firing Imoo isn’t going to solve all of hockey’s problems, but it’s certainly a positive development that when the Leafs became aware of his disgusting views, they were no longer interested in having him around.