NHL allowing acquitted players from Hockey Canada trial to become free agents
All five players acquitted in the 2018 London, Ont., sexual assault trial will be eligible to sign with NHL teams as soon as Oct. 15.
Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote, and Alex Formenton were each charged with one count of sexual assault in an incident that occurred while they were celebrating their World Junior championship on behalf of Hockey Canada from June 17 to 19, 2018. Michael McLeod was charged with one count of sexual assault, plus one count of being a party to the offences.
After a two-month trial, all five players were acquitted by Justice Maria Carroccia in London on July 24.
The NHL has announced that the players will be allowed back into the league. They’ll be eligible to sign contracts beginning Oct. 15, though they will continue to be suspended until Dec. 1.
“The events that transpired after the 2018 Hockey Canada Foundation Gala in London, Ontario, prior to these players’ arrival in the NHL, were deeply troubling and unacceptable,” the NHL said in a statement on Thursday afternoon. “The League expects everyone connected with the game to conduct themselves with the highest level of moral integrity. And, in this case, while found not to have been criminal, the conduct of the players involved certainly did not meet that standard.”
Hart, Dube, Foote, and McLeod last appeared in the NHL during the 2023-24 season, while Formenton’s last season came in 2021-22.
The NHL also said that they have met with all five players individually, and that they expressed remorse for their actions back in 2018.
“Given their conduct, we carefully evaluated the players’ acquittal in court and the time spent away from the game. Taking into account that the players have been away from the game for 20 months – including since their acquittals in July — we have determined that the players will be eligible to sign an NHL contract no sooner than October 15, 2025, and eligible to play in NHL games no sooner than December 1, 2025, bringing their total time out of the League to nearly two years.”
It remains to be seen if any of these players will earn new NHL contracts. Many have wondered if the Edmonton Oilers would sign former Flyers No. 1 netminder Hart, for instance, though reports have previously indicated that they wouldn’t be interested.