Ducks’ Clayton Stoner is charged in illegal grizzly bear hunt

Ducks defenseman Clayton Stoner faces five charges in Canada stemming from the hunting and killing of a grizzly bear in a remote section of his native province of British Columbia in 2013, the Vancouver Sun reported.

Stoner was charged under Canada’s Wildlife Act with killing a 5-year-old grizzly bear that was known to local residents as Cheeky. The hunt took place while he was a member of the Minnesota Wild and before he signed with the Ducks as a free agent in 2014.

Stoner was charged with two counts of knowingly making a false statement to obtain a license and single counts of hunting without a license, hunting out of season and unlawful possession of dead wildlife.

He previously said he shot the bear while hunting with a license issued by the province. The Coastal First Nations alliance contended that Stoner shot the bear in an ancient site that was meaningful to its members and said that Stoner skinned the bear and left it to rot in a field. “His head and paws were carried out past a sign declaring trophy hunting closed in the Great Bear Rainforest,” the alliance said in a statement two years ago.

NHL training camps opened Thursday with players reporting for physicals. Stoner is scheduled to appear in court in Vancouver on Oct. 9, the day before the Ducks open the season at San Jose.

A Ducks spokesman said Stoner had declined to comment on the matter on Wednesday.