Auston Matthews got caught with his pants down.
The Toronto Maple Leafs star is facing a disorderly conduct charge in his hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona, after allegedly pulling down his pants in front of a female security guard who was disturbed by Matthews and his friends while sitting in her car on May 26. Matthews has a pretrial conference scheduled for Wednesday morning, according to court records.
“It’s not something that I think any of us really wish we were talking about today, but unfortunately it’s the situation we’re in. I regret any of my actions that would ever put a distraction on the team or distress any individual,” Matthews told reporters Wednesday. “I take a lot of pride in preparing myself for the season and representing the Toronto Maple Leafs as well as I can. Unfortunately due to the situation, I’m afraid I can’t really make any other comments.”
The 22-year-old was issued a summons on July 23 for the incident.
“The Toronto Maple Leafs are aware of the complaint of disturbing the peace against forward Auston Matthews. Auston is cooperating fully with relevant authorities but neither he nor the Club will comment any further,” the Maple Leafs said in a statement.
The security guard was sitting in her car around 2 a.m. outside a condominium complex when someone tried to open her car door, according to a police report obtained by the Toronto Star. The guard exited the vehicle to confront Matthews, who the guard said was intoxicated. Matthews, per the report, said he and his friends wanted to see what the woman would do and thought it was funny.
Per the report, the guard told Matthews and his friends, “I am a female. I am a military vet with sever[e] PTSD.”
A friend of Matthews tried to calm the guard down and asked her not to report the incident to management. Matthews walked away, “pulled his pants down, bent over and grabbed his butt cheeks” with his underwear still on, the report said.
Matthews, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, was given a five-year, $58 million contract extension in February. He has 205 points in 212 career regular-season games.