NHL<\/a> is reinstating five players who were acquitted of sexual assault charges stemming from an incident in 2018 when they were members of Canada\u2019s world junior team, announcing Thursday they will be eligible to sign a contract October 15 and take part in games December 1.\n <\/p>\n\n The move comes roughly seven weeks since Carter Hart, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton were found not guilty by a judge in London, Ontario. The Canadian government told lawyers for the players last month it would not appeal the ruling.\n <\/p>\n
\n They were not in the NHL at the time of the incident.\n <\/p>\n
\n None of the players had current contracts and all are free agents. Hart was with Philadelphia, McLeod and Foote with New Jersey, and Dube with Calgary, while Formenton was playing in Europe, and their respective teams let their previous deals expire last year after charges were laid.\n <\/p>\n
\n The NHL conducted its own investigation beginning in the spring of 2022 when the allegations came to light. It called the events that transpired \u201cdeeply troubling and unacceptable\u201d and that while they were not found to be criminal, said the players\u2019 conduct did not meet the standard of moral integrity.\n <\/p>\n
\n The players met with league officials after the verdict and expressed regret and remorse, the NHL said. Keeping them from playing until December 1 brings their total time away to nearly two years.\n <\/p>\n
\n The NHL Players\u2019 Association in a statement said it was pleased Dube, Foote, Formenton, Hart and McLeod are getting the opportunity to resume their careers.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe players cooperated with every investigation,\u201d the union said. \u201cUpon their full acquittal by Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia, we initiated discussions with the NHL regarding the players\u2019 return to work. To avoid a protracted dispute that would cause further delay, we reached the resolution that the league announced today. We now consider the matter closed and look forward to the players\u2019 return.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, earlier in the week, said an update was coming \u201cin the relatively near future\u201d and declined to go into the contents of the investigative process.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cObviously, we take the matter very seriously, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s still under review,\u201d Daly said Tuesday in Las Vegas.\n <\/p>\n
\n Training camps open next week, and the season begins October 7. Many teams are holding rookie camps, scrimmages or participating in tournaments in the leadup to that.\n <\/p>\n
\n Speaking Thursday at a prospects tournament hosted by Buffalo, Columbus general manager Don Waddell said: \u201cThe league obviously has followed this case and looked into it and the decision was made. You\u2019ve got to support the decision by the NHL.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Asked about Hart on Wednesday in Voorhees, New Jersey, the head of the company that owns the Flyers, said they would not comment at this point.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe NHL\u2019s made it clear they\u2019ll speak first,\u201d Comcast Spectacor chairman and CEO Dan Hilferty said. \u201cBut right now, we\u2019re not prepared to comment on the Carter Hart situation. The NHL has told us they are running the show.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Hart, McLeod, Dube and Foote last took part in NHL games in January 2024 before leaving their teams with charges pending. It was not immediately clear how many of the players would be signed when eligible, though Hart as a 27-year-old goaltender with significant experience appears to be the most likely.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link New York AP \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The NHL is reinstating five players who were acquitted of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-137691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}