When the former Canadian junior hockey players were charged in early 2024, four of them played in the NHL.
An Ontario judge acquitted five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team on Thursday in their sexual assault case, saying the complainant’s allegations lacked the credibility needed to justify the charges.
Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia said prosecutors could not meet the onus of proof for the charges against Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote.
The players’ identities were made public when they were charged in early 2024. At the time, four of them played in the NHL — Dube for the Calgary Flames, Hart for the Philadelphia Flyers, and McLeod and Foote for the New Jersey Devils. Formenton had previously played for the Ottawa Senators before joining a Swiss team. All went on indefinite leave and none is on an NHL roster or has an active contract with a team in the league.
All five players had pleaded not guilty to sexual assault in an encounter that took place in a London, Ontario, hotel room in the early hours of June 19, 2018. Years of speculation regarding the allegations — fueled by a lawsuit settlement, parliamentary hearings and revived investigations by the police and Hockey Canada, along with an NHL investigation — all preceded a complex trial earlier this year that included a mistrial and the dismissal of the jury, leaving the verdict to Carroccia.
