The five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team who were acquitted Thursday of sexual assault are “ineligible” to play in the NHL as it reviews the judge’s findings, the league says.
Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote were found not guilty of all charges after a high-profile trial centred on an alleged group sexual encounter in London, Ont., in 2018, in which the players were accused of non-consensual sex.
“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 to Global News.
“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.”
In response, the National Hockey League Players’ Association said ruling the players ineligible while the NHL further evaluates is inconsistent with the league and players’ union’s collective bargaining agreement.
“Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, and Michael McLeod were acquitted of all charges by Justice Carroccia of the Ontario Superior Court,” the NHLPA’s statement read. “After missing more than a full season of their respective NHL careers, they should now have the opportunity to return to work. The NHL’s declaration that the Players are ‘ineligible’ to play pending its further analysis of the Court’s findings is inconsistent with the discipline procedures set forth in the CBA.
“We are addressing this dispute with the League and will have no further comment at this time.”
McLeod, Hart, Dubé and Foote were active NHL players at the time of their 2024 arrests, which came days after all four players were granted leave from their clubs.
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Formenton, an Ottawa Senators draft pick, has not played in the NHL since 2022. He last played with the Swiss club HC Ambri-Piotta.
The five men had been on trial since late April — accused of engaging in non-consensual group sex with a then-20-year-old woman in June 2018. All five men pleaded not guilty to sexual assault; McLeod also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.
“In this case, I have found actual consent not vitiated by fear. I do not find the evidence of E.M. to be either credible or reliable,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia said of the female complainant, known as E.M. in court documents as her identity is protected under a standard publication ban.
“With respect to the charges before this court, having found that I cannot rely upon the evidence of E.M. and then considering the evidence in this trial on the whole, I conclude the Crown can not meet its onus on any of the counts before me.”
Court heard the team was in London for events marking its gold-medal performance at that year’s championship, and that the complainant was out with friends when they met at a downtown bar on June 18, 2018.
After being with McLeod and his teammates at the bar, E.M. would go on to have consensual sex with McLeod in his room in the early morning hours of June 19. Court has heard that E.M., who testified she was drunk and not of clear mind, was in the washroom after she had sex with McLeod and came out to a group of men in the room allegedly invited by McLeod in the group chat.
It was then that the Crown alleged several sexual acts took place without E.M.’s consent, an argument Carroccia rejected in her ruling Thursday.
Hart, formerly of the Philadelphia Flyers; McLeod and Foote, formerly of the New Jersey Devils; and Dubé, formerly of the Calgary Flames were not re-signed by their respective teams last year after they were charged. Up until that point, they were still being paid while they were on leave to defend themselves against the charges.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in February 2024 after the charges were filed in court that the league would not consider any punishment against the four players until the conclusion of judicial proceedings.
“I have repeatedly used the words ‘abhorrent, reprehensible, horrific and unacceptable’ to describe the alleged behaviors. And those words continue to apply,” he said at the time.
—With files from Global’s Aaron D’Andrea and Sean O’Shea, and the Canadian Press
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