Now that the NHL has cleared a path for the five players acquitted on sexual assault charges in the Hockey Canada trial to return to playing games in the league as soon as Dec. 1, there is plenty of buzz on Carter Hart’s free agency. He stands out among the new group of unrestricted free agents thrown onto the open market less than a week before the start of training camps.
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For starters, the 27-year-old is a goaltender — and once a highly regarded one.
Hart’s last professional game is also furthest in the rear-view mirror because he chose not to join a team in Europe while pretrial proceedings stretched out for more than a year. His last appearance came with the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 20, 2024 — three days before being granted an indefinite leave of absence by the team, and just ahead of prosecutors in London, Ont., bringing criminal charges against him, Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton and Michael McLeod in connection to an incident in June 2018. A woman known publicly as E.M. said she was sexually assaulted by the players over several hours in a hotel room following a Hockey Canada event.
Having received a not guilty verdict from Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia on July 24 and cleared for reinstatement by the NHL on Thursday, Hart can now chart the path to resuming his NHL career.
There may be teams that elect not to pursue the players on moral grounds — the NHL said Thursday “that the conduct at issue falls woefully short of the standards and values that the league and its member clubs expect and demand” — but league sources indicate that there are multiple clubs with interest.
Hart has appeared in 227 career NHL games — more than every active goaltender his age other than Jake Oettinger of the Dallas Stars, even with the 21-month layoff. And his career .906 save percentage is six points higher than the NHL average was in 2024-25.
Per league sources, Hart is expected to reach terms on a contract by Oct. 1, though the contract can’t officially be registered with the NHL until Oct. 15. His top priorities are finding a job with a clear chance to get a meaningful number of starts and playing for a team that can win.
Hart is looking for a fresh start, which effectively rules out a return to Philadelphia.
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He’s also almost certainly going to land with a U.S.-based team, per league sources. That invalidates any notion of the Sherwood Park, Alta., native landing with his hometown Edmonton Oilers — a popular speculative home among some media and fans, but in reality not a good fit on either side of the equation.
The ideal fit will be a good to great team with a need to strengthen its crease. The only other remaining unsigned free-agent goaltenders of note currently are veterans Ilya Samsonov and James Reimer, neither of whom comes with an upside as high as Hart.
Once Hart chooses his next NHL destination, he’s expected to sign a two- or three-year contract, per league sources. The two-year term would open up the possibility of an extension as soon as the summer of 2026 if the player and team feel it’s a good match.
In the meantime, Hart’s focus is on getting his game back up to an NHL level. The terms of the league’s reinstatement allow him a month to practice and get acclimated with his new team — from Oct. 15 to Nov. 15 — before he becomes eligible for an American Hockey League conditioning assignment.
He’ll likely start a handful of games at the AHL level, where he last played for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in 2019, before returning to an NHL crease in early December.
(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
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Chris Johnston is a senior writer covering the NHL for The Athletic. He has two decades of experience as an NHL Insider, having appeared on Hockey Night in Canada and the NHL Network before joining TSN in 2021. He currently hosts the “Chris Johnston Show” on the Steve Dangle Podcast Network. He’s written previously for the Toronto Star, Sportsnet and The Canadian Press. Follow Chris on Twitter @reporterchris
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