Vancouver Canucks' Willie Mitchell celebrates his goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins during second period NHL action in Vancouver, B.C., on Saturday, January 16, 2010. Mitchell played for the Melfort Mustangs for two seasons from 1995-1997. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)

By Logan Lehmann

Court

Former NHLer, 1996 SJHL Champion with Mustangs accused of sexual assault

Oct 2, 2025 | 4:34 PM

A storied Melfort Mustang is under investigation following a civil claim that was filed in British Columbia Supreme Court on Wednesday.

A lawsuit has been filed against Willie Mitchell, alleging he sexually assaulted a server at the Tofino Resort + Marina Inc. in B.C. in September 2022 while she was “extremely intoxicated.” The woman was not named, and a lawsuit was also filed against the resort.

The woman’s claim says the resort was hosting a fishing tournament and after finishing her shift, she went to an adjoining pub, where she became “visibly impaired” by alcohol, leaving her with only “fragmented” memories of the evening of Sept. 11, 2022. The lawsuit says Mitchell escorted her from the pub while she was wearing only one shoe and took her back to his home, where he allegedly “engaged in unprotected sexual activity” with the woman without “express or implied” consent.

The allegations in the lawsuit have not been tested or proven in court, and neither Mitchell nor the resort have filed responses in the case. The lawsuit says Mitchell is 19 years older than the woman and was a company director at the resort up until February 2023.

The lawsuit adds that the plaintiff wants the court to consider evidence from one or more other complainants “in light of the similarities between their stories.” The plaintiff’s lawyer Sandra Kovacs said in an interview Thursday that her client suffered a “serious disruption in her life and a serious decline in her mental health, which is set out in the pleading.”

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Kovacs said the RCMP investigated at the time, and while Crown prosecutors declined to lay charges, civil lawsuits can provide “an opportunity to look at how these sorts of events can be prevented by secondary bystanders.”

The lawsuit alleges Mitchell was an “agent” of the resort that allegedly over-served her client alcohol.

“This girl ended up with one shoe and all of her belongings left at the bar, and so that speaks to, I say, her level of impairment,” Kovacs said. “And it imports interesting questions into whether or not she truly had the capacity to consent.”

Prior to joining the resort as an employee, Mitchell was a two-time Stanley Cup Champion with the L.A. Kings and a 16-year veteran in the National Hockey League (NHL). Before going pro, he spent his junior days as a fixture on the Melfort Mustangs blueline.

As an assistant captain, Mitchell played in 43 games for the Blue and Green in the 1995-96 season, scoring 14 points (4G-10A) in the regular season while adding another two assists in 14 playoff games to help the Mustangs to their second SJHL Championship. Later that summer, he heard his name called during the 1996 NHL Draft in St. Louis, where he was taken in the eighth round, 199th overall, by the New Jersey Devils.

He returned to Melfort for a second season in 1996-97, where he tallied 56 points (14G-42A) in 64 games, earning the Top Defenceman Award and SJHL First All-Star Team honours.

Following his days in Junior A, he appeared in 907 NHL games from 2000-2016 with six different teams, including New Jersey, Minnesota, Dallas, Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Florida. He’s best known for his time in L.A., where he won two cups with the Kings in 2012 and 2014.

He was also a member of Team Canada at the 2004 World Ice Hockey Championships, which won gold in Czechia, then known as the Czech Republic.

-with files from The Canadian Press

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

On Bluesky: @loganlehmann.bsky.social