Report: Unnamed NHL player tied to the overdose death of MLB pitcher Tyler Skaggs
And social media sleuths have deduced a likely suspect.
HockeyFeed
Forgive me if my reporting on this following story isn't entirely on point, as major league baseball isn't really my cup of tea.
Having said that, I do know about the story of former MLB pitcher Tyler Skaggs and his death from opiate overdose in 2019. Skaggs was a starting pitcher with the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Anaheim Angels from 2012 until his death in 2019 and his death is the focus of a criminal trial with charges against a former Angels PR director who is alleged to have provided Skaggs with illegal medications. The investigation may also uncover if there were any illegal activities surrounding Skaggs' death and if there is any culpability from Skaggs' former teammates, coaches and employers.
From a hockey fan's perspective it seems like there's little of relevancy in this story until today when Skaggs former teammate Matt Harvey took the stand. In a text sent before his overdose death, Skaggs is alleged to have asked Harvey for the opiate Percocet. When cross examined on the stand today, Harvey admitted that he procured the drug "from a hockey player".
More context from TSN's Rick Westhead:
While Harvey doesn't name the player, some Internet sleuths have deduced that it may in fact be Ottawa Senators defenseman Michael Del Zotto. Now, let me preface this by saying that Del Zotto hasn't been implicated in anything and there is zero proof tying him to this criminal case. The word "allegedly" doesn't even apply here because no one is even alleging that Del Zotto has done anything wrong, this is simply a case of people connecting the dots.
But... those dots do connect quite well.
Del Zotto is known to have been a friend of Harvey's and the two reportedly ran in the same "party circles" in both New York and Los Angeles. As fate would have it, Del Zotto was in New York with the Rangers while Harvey was in New York with the Mets... ditto for Los Angeles when Del Zotto played for the Anaheim Ducks and Harvey played for the Anaheim Angels. Now... living in the same city as someone is not a criminal offence and it's certainly not proof of anything, but the two men's past history and their proximity to each other at the time of Skagg's death has a lot of eyebrows raised on social media.
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