Five acquitted players on different paths

Five former members of Canada's 2018 world junior hockey team—Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote, and Michael McLeod—were acquitted in July 2025 on sexual assault charges from an encounter at a 2018 Hockey Canada gala in London, Ont. Since then, the NHL has reinstated all five, allowing them to play beginning Dec.

1, 2025. Hockey Canada's appeal board later ruled that three of the five breached the governing body’s code of conduct and extended its ban from national programs for those three. Formenton, the only player made immediately eligible for reinstatement, recently signed a one-year, $850,000 contract with the Edmonton Oilers, while Hart, Dubé, and Foote have signed contracts with the Vegas Golden Knights, St. Louis Blues, and Chicago Wolves, respectively.

McLeod, the only one not to play in North America, signed a three-year contract with Avangard Omsk of the KHL.

Brief written by urgent.news from Global News's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.