Netflix produces documentary on one of the craziest real-life hockey stories ever

If you love a good hockey story, you'll definitely want to check out the latest installment of Netflix's "Untold" series. Untold: Crime and Penalties releases on August 31st and tells the story of the Danbury Trashers, a team that played for two seasons in the now defunct United Hockey League, and led to some of the craziest things to ever happen in hockey.

In 2004, James Galante, described as the "real-life Tony Soprano", purchased the Danbury franchise and named it the Trashers due to the fact that he had stake in 25 trash-hauling companies. He immediately named his 17-year-old son (yes, you read that right) A.J. president and general manager of the team. He also invested $1.5 million in the team's arena to increase seating to 3000 from 750.

A.J. envisioned a team that would be the "bad-boys" of hockey, and set out to sign players that would help that image. In Danbury's first season, the team would rack up more penalty minutes than any club in the league's history. It also included two major bench-clearing brawls and several player suspensions. Despite that, the team finished second in their division, but did not win the league championship. In Danbury's second year in the league, the Trashers reached the league championship while maintaining its rough style of play. They didn't win, and shortly after James Galante was arrested on 72 various charges including conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 87 months of imprisonment, and had to forfeit his ownership interests in the trash-hauling companies. During the same time, the Trashers disbanded citing financial concerns, including travel costs. One of the charges Galante faced which was directly related to the Trashers was wire fraud, which resulted from the interstate faxing of fraudulent salary cap documents. The Trashers had circumvented the UHL's $275,000 annual salary cap by giving players or their wives no-show positions within one of the disposal companies or giving them housing allowance checks for sums which had already been paid. Estimates were that the Trashers had exceeded the salary cap by $475,000, making the total payroll closer to $750,000.

Here's the trailer released by Netflix. It should be a good one for anyone interested in hockey.

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