Bonello On Danton And Frost

An article today in the Ottawa Sun by Chris Stevenson looks at Bonello's relationship with Mike Danton and their agent David Frost (link). I know that I'm not the only one confused regarding the case against Danton. The prosecution told media that Danton was accused of hiring a hit on Frost, but Frost has repeatedly denied this. In fact, Danton and Frost still continue to communicate. From CBC Sports (link):

According to U.S. federal prosecutors, Danton plotted to kill Frost for at least six months, a charge that the agent has repeatedly denied.

"I wasn't the target," said Frost. "Once the whole thing shakes down, everyone will understand exactly all of the circumstances of what happened.”

If Frost was not the target, then who was? And why is Danton going to jail for 7 years? Now that things have shaken down, everybody is still in the dark. In regards to Bonello, Stevenon's article provides some interesting comments:

Bonello chuckled when asked about the way his agent has been characterized and said Frost has done nothing but right by him.

"People look at his persona, they look at his history and his coaching. I think it's funny how everybody twists the story one way or the other. They say every player of his doesn't have a relationship with his family. That's totally false. I have a strong relationship with my family," said Bonello.

I'm not sure that we will ever know. How many cryptic stories have been printed about Frost, that hint at his power over players, using words like 'cult', but where no one wants their name exposed or attached. Take this article, for instance, written by Steve Simmons (link). It only raises more questions. These 2 paragraphs from the article provide an excellent example of the vagueness surrounding Frost and his players:

Thus begun an exhaustive one-month journey into a man lurking in the hockey shadows, with truths being twisted, controlling a clique of "his boys" and whispers and rumours (not of a sexual nature) -- but hardly anyone willing to go on the record to say what they knew.

People were afraid of him. They were afraid if they spoke out against him they would be the ones injured in the end. They were concerned if they said what they knew about how he operated, about the control he had over his kids, they would end up punished. I interviewed almost 100 people, many of them refusing to go on the record, about Frost, including a 140-minute session with him at what was then his Brampton home, and the more I learned, the more cryptic the story became.

One thing is very clear however, hockey likes to keep its secrets.