After months of court procedures and waiting for a decision from the judge, a Canadian court has ruled that all five accused members of Canada’s 2018 world junior championship team were found not guilty of sexual assault. Following the verdict, a door has opened for each of Carter Hart, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube, Alex Formenton and Cal Foote to make a return to the NHL.
All are currently listed as unrestricted free agents and teams around the NHL already have interest in offering contracts. According to the Athletic, NHL front offices are awaiting full clearance from the league.
“In the meantime,” the Athletic writes. “There are certainly NHL executives with interest in signing some of the players.”
The NHL recently stated that they will be conducting their own review of the situation before clearing any of the players for a return. Each of Hart, McLeod, Dube, Formenton and Foote are ineligible to sign a deal with an NHL team.
“The allegations made in this case, even if not determined to have been criminal, were very disturbing and the behavior at issue was unacceptable,” the NHL said in a statement. “We will be reviewing and considering the judge’s findings. While we conduct that analysis and determine next steps, the players charged in this case are ineligible to play in the league.”
There is no clear timetable for the NHL to make their decision from their findings. If they decide to lift the ineligibility, expect deals to be made rather quickly with at least a couple of the players.
Hart would be a primary target for multiple teams who need help between the pipes. Before the start of the trial, Hart played 227 games with the Philadelphia Flyers as their star goalie.
During his time with the Flyers, he picked up a 96-93-29 record with a .906 save percentage and 2.94 goals against average. There are still teams who could use a boost in net and Hart might be able to provide that.
Despite not playing a game of professional hockey since January of 2024, Hart has been training in Nashville.
McLeod and Dube are also likely to fetch new contracts if they are cleared, having played over 200 and 300 NHL games respectively before the course of their professional careers.
The two also spent time in the KHL during their stint away from the NHL.
It’s now up to the NHL and the teams to decide what the future holds for each of the players.
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Nick Horwat is a contributor with Breakaway On SI. He was previously a credentialed reporter for The Hockey News covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A Pittsburgh native, Nick graduated from Point Park University and started reporting on news and sports with KDKA Radio and 93.7 The Fan. After hosting a Penguins talk radio show in college, he morphed the show into a podcast. The Tip of the Ice-Burgh Podcast has been a leading Penguins podcast since 2019. Follow him on Twitter @NickHorwat41.
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