NHL\u00a0deputy commissioner Bill Daly says he expects a decision soon from the league on the status of five former Hockey Canada players acquitted at trial in a high-profile sexual assault case.<\/p>\n
Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote were acquitted July 24 in London, Ont. McLeod was also acquitted of a separate charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.<\/p>\n
The ruling, which was handed down more than seven years after the encounter in a hotel room at the heart of the case, capped off a complex trial that captured attention across Canada and renewed conversations about consent and hockey culture.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0NHL\u00a0said following the decision that the players remain ineligible to suit up in the league while it reviews the findings. That declaration was denounced by the\u00a0NHL\u00a0Players\u2019 Association at the time, while Hockey Canada said the five athletes remain suspended from all its sanctioned programming.<\/p>\n
Daly didn\u2019t provide an update Tuesday when speaking to a small group of reporters at the\u00a0NHL\/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas, but said he anticipates there will be \u201ca decision at some point in the relatively near future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daly added the\u00a0NHL\u00a0takes \u201cthe matter very seriously, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s still under review.\u201d<\/p>\n
The case centred on an encounter that took place in the early hours of June 19, 2018, when many members of that year\u2019s podium-topping world junior hockey team were in London for a series of events celebrating their gold-medal performance.<\/p>\n
The players were charged in February 2024.<\/p>\n
Hart was a star goaltender for the Philadelphia Flyers, but hasn\u2019t played since the 2023-24 season. McLeod, a centre, and Foot, a defenceman, were members of the New Jersey Devils. Dube was a centre with the Calgary Flames, while Alex Formenton was a winger with the Ottawa Senators.<\/p>\n
McLeod has spent the last two seasons playing in the Russian-based KHL, while Dube and Foote were part of the circuit in 2024-25. Court documents showed Formenton had retired, but he recently signed on in Switzerland\u2019s top league after also playing there in 2022-23 and 2023-24<\/p>\n
OLYMPIC PREP<\/p>\n
Daly was asked at the league\u2019s media tour about arena construction ahead of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics in Italy as the\u00a0NHL\u00a0prepares to return to the Games following a 12-year hiatus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe arena is not done,\u201d Daly said. \u201cIt\u2019s being worked on diligently, is what I last heard. I do think some of the dynamics with the contractor and subcontractors have changed in a positive way that has created more progress on the building from a timeline perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added the organizing committee is expected to have access to the facility as early as the end of next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey also have a test event that is scheduled for December, which will be more hockey-related and less fan-related,\u201d Daly said. \u201cThey\u2019re not going to be prepared to host a full building of spectators. It\u2019ll basically be operational people and the on-ice participants.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll find out in early December how far away we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
DECENTRALIZED DRAFT<\/p>\n
Daly confirmed the\u00a0NHL\u00a0will hold another decentralized draft following June\u2019s first attempt.<\/p>\n
The event drew heavy outside criticism for a glacial first-round, but he said teams were largely happy with the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile it wasn\u2019t as overwhelming a vote as it was the first time we asked, it was still a strong majority (that) wanted to have a decentralized draft,\u201d Daly said. \u201cIt was the first time we\u2019ve done it, so from a production standpoint, I think there are going to be significant changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be a 4 1\/2 hour first round.\u201d<\/p>\n
DRESS CODE<\/p>\n
The new collective bargaining agreement signed between the league and union will see dress-code rules relaxed for players.<\/p>\n
Daly said changing the rules around what NHLers can wear when the arrive at arenas for games wasn\u2019t as big an assist for the league as it was for select teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome clubs feel like they should have the ability to decide how players appear (in) the workplace,\u201d he said. \u201cBut with respect to those clubs, the ones I\u2019ve heard from, they understand. I don\u2019t think it was a major issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot as big an issue as fitness testing, for instance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fitness testing at\u00a0NHL\u00a0training camps will no longer be permitted following the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL\u00a0deputy commissioner Bill Daly says he expects a decision soon from the league on the status of five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-133781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}