Sens captain’s wife alleges harassment after son’s death
OTTAWA • The wife of the captain of the Ottawa Senators has filed an order of protection against the longtime girlfriend of Senators forward Mike Hoffman, alleging a campaign of harassment that plagued Erik and Melinda Karlsson after the death of their son and through much of the last NHL season.
The application for a peace bond, sworn in front of an Ottawa justice of the peace on May 4, alleges that Monika Caryk, Hoffman’s partner, had threatened the Karlssons from November 2017 to the date the information was sworn.
Hoffman and Caryk deny this.
The campaign allegedly started after the Karlssons announced on social media in late November that they were expecting their first child, a son they would name Axel Michael who was stillborn on March 19, 2018.
“Monika Caryk has uttered numerous statements wishing my unborn child dead,” says Melinda Karlsson’s sworn statement filed with the court.
“She also uttered that she wished I was dead and that someone should ‘take out’ my husband’s legs to ‘end his career.’
“Monika Caryk has posted over 1,000 negative and derogatory statements about me as a professional.”
Reached on Tuesday afternoon, Hoffman said, “There’s nothing really for me to say, at this time. That’s all I can say.”
In a subsequent comment, Hoffman said, “There is a 150 per cent chance that my fiancée Monika and I are not involved in any of the accusations that have been pursued (that are) coming our way. We totally understand there’s no place for cyberbullying.
“We’ve offered to cooperate and do anything it takes to find out who is doing this, and support (the Karlssons). Obviously this is a tough time that they’re going through, and we want to find out who is doing this, because for some reason it’s coming into our court, and it’s 150 per cent that it’s not us.
“We have nothing to hide. We’re willing to co-operate in any way to solve this and figure it out, and prove that it wasn’t us.”
Caryk could not be reached.
In March, Erik Karlsson blasted an anonymous online troll who, in the comments section of an Instagram post mourning his dead son, accused his wife of “popping painkiller medication” during her pregnancy.
In the post, Karlsson posted a photo of Axel’s tiny footprints and thanked the city and the team’s fans for their love and support and wrote: “We feel very lucky to be Axel’s parents. Even though he was stillborn, we know we will hold him again one day under different circumstances and the joy he gave us will be with us forever.”
The post garnered more than 10,000 comments, with the overwhelming majority of them expressions of support and sympathy for the couple. However, one comment, posted by user @sandydandy45, said: “I feel bad for the baby he didn’t have a chance with Melinda popping pain killer medication everyday.”
It took the league’s top defenceman just seven minutes to respond: “How dare you. You have been making fake accounts and buying hacked ones for months to harass me and my wife but this is an all new low even for you. You are a disgusting person.”
The user @sandydandy45 has since deactivated that account.
Postmedia has found other social media users coming to Melinda Karlsson’s defence after Twitter user @petersonmegan51 used an anti-bullying event to insult her. That account has also since been deleted.
In recent weeks, Caryk has created a new Instagram profile, which she has made private. That account calls her a “professional packer-unpacker,” “frenchdog enthusiast” and “Champagne lover.”
Court filings list her summer address from June to August as being in Waterloo, Ont. Her home from September to May — and during the NHL season — is listed as the Ottawa home owned by Hoffman.
A peace bond is similar to a restraining order and is issued by a justice of the peace when a person fears injury to themselves or to their property, or fears that someone is likely to commit a criminal offence, though one has not yet been committed.
Ottawa police are investigating the criminal harassment allegations.
No criminal charges have been laid against Caryk and none of the allegations against her have been tested in court. No conditions have been set out in the bond either, since it appears to not yet have been served on Caryk.
Karlsson, who has been with the Senators for nine seasons, has been named as the league’s top-scoring defenceman four times and has won the Norris Trophy for top defenceman twice.
He has also led the Senators in scoring for the last five years, though he shared the title with winger Mark Stone last season.
Hoffman has been one of the Senators’ most consistent goal scorers, leading the team in goals for the last four seasons.
The Senators have not responded to a request for comment.