{"id":358872,"date":"2025-12-21T02:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T02:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/358872\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T02:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T02:45:07","slug":"carter-hart-to-start-for-golden-knights-in-edmonton-versus-oilers-on-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/358872\/","title":{"rendered":"Carter Hart to start for Golden Knights in Edmonton versus Oilers on Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

CALGARY \u2014 Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> goaltender Carter Hart<\/a> will be the first of five former Canadian junior hockey players acquitted of sexual assault earlier this year to appear in a professional game in Canada.<\/p>\n

Hart, from Sherwood Park, Alta., is scheduled to start for the Golden Knights on Sunday against the Oilers in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights faced the Flames in Calgary on Saturday when Akira Schmid<\/a> was the Vegas starter. <\/p>\n

Hart wasn\u2019t available to media after the Saturday morning skates because he was backing up Schmid in the evening game, a team spokesman said.<\/p>\n

Hart, forwards Michael McLeod<\/a>, Alex Formenton<\/a>, Dillon Dube and defenceman Cal Foote<\/a> were acquitted of sexual assault charges in London, Ont., in July. <\/p>\n

The five pleaded not guilty to the charges stemming from a sexual encounter with a woman at a 2018 Hockey Canada gala in London, where their national junior team\u2019s gold medal at that year\u2019s world championship was celebrated.<\/p>\n

The charges, trial and judge\u2019s decision were polarizing in Canada given the country\u2019s passion for hockey, and the large viewership Canada\u2019s games draw at the annual junior tournament.<\/p>\n

The trial and decision amplified the conversation around what constitutes sexual consent. Hockey Canada\u2019s conduct in handling the allegations and its settlements of other unrelated lawsuits also went under the microscope.<\/p>\n

McLeod, Hart, Dube and Foote were active NHL players at the time of their 2024 arrests. <\/p>\n

The NHL said in September the five players, who were all free agents, could sign with teams Oct. 15 and start playing Dec. 1.<\/p>\n

Hart, 27, has been the lone player among the five to sign with an NHL club. He spent his first six NHL seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He played his first game with Vegas on Dec. 2. Hart\u2019s record with the Golden Knights was 3-0-2 with a 2.26 goals-against average and .917 save percentage.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looks very comfortable. He\u2019s been a real good pro,\u201d Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy<\/a> said Saturday. \u201cBefore he played for us, he practised, so that\u2019s how we got to know him around the rink. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe is in early doing his work, so that part has been good. He went on a trip to Florida early in the year, even though he couldn\u2019t play, to get to know the guys. So I think that was good for him to get to know his teammates. The other part, Carter, I\u2019m not sure, he\u2019s kind of a quiet guy to begin with, so probably a little bit to himself, typical goalie that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

If and where the players resumed their careers drew attention in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s handled it great. Edmonton will be different. You\u2019re back in Canada, his hometown,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cPhiladelphia was good. He didn\u2019t play that day. We played three games that week. He played the other two, but certainly those are all memories for him that only he can speak to, how easy or difficult they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foote signed with the AHL\u2019s Chicago Wolves, which is a Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> affiliate, earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Dube recently signed a professional tryout contract with the American Hockey League\u2019s Springfield Thunderbirds, which is a St. Louis Blues<\/a> affiliate. <\/p>\n

Formenton is playing in Switzerland for Ambri-Piotta and McLeod in the Russia-based KHL for Avangard-Omsk.<\/p>\n

In its September statement that reinstated the players, the NHL said based on its own investigation and the Ontario judge\u2019s decision, \u201cthe conduct at issue falls woefully short of the standards and values that the league and its member clubs expect and demand,\u201d and \u201ceach of the players, based on in-person meetings with the league following the verdicts, expressed regret and remorse for his actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2025.<\/p>\n

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY \u2014 Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Carter Hart will be the first of five former Canadian junior hockey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-358872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358872","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=358872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}