You’ve seen the news, from the Globe and Mail, on Wednesday morning that revealed that five former players from the 2018 world junior hockey team have been told to surrender to London, Ont., police to face charges of sexual assault. The players have reportedly been given a set period of time to present themselves at London police headquarters.
Links were quickly made with Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart, who was a member of the 2018 WJC Team Canada. The Flyers announced on Tuesday that Hart had left the team for personal reasons. Hart has no timetable for his return. This came just days after the Calgary Flames announced that Dillion Dube was stepping away from the game to focus on his mental health. He too was a member of the 2018 roster for Team Canada.
Then came Alex Formenton. The Ottawa Senators reserve list player is returning to Canada, according to Swiss club HC Ambri-Piotta, and has been granted an indefinite leave of absence from the team. He too was a member of the 2018 Team Canada WJC team, though he has not played in the NHL since 2022.
Fans attemtped to guess which two players are the ones left and will need to surrender soon to the London Police. Things only got worse when New Jersey Devils’ Cal Foote and Michael McLeod were missing from practice on Wednesday.
Moments later, Chris Johnston confirmed that both McLeod and Foote have each been granted an indefinite leave of absence from the Devils.
If insiders are correct, it sounds like all five players were granted time to surrender to London police and take part in the ongoing investigation.
More will come on this situation as the London police takes over in the rest of the investigation.
When news emerged that a woman had been gang raped by players from the 2018 junior team, some of the roster’s members had made statements that they weren’t involved.
The list of players denying involvement and providing alibis:
Kale Clague, Jordan Kyrou, Cale Makar, Victor Mete, Robert Thomas.
The list of players denying involvement without alibis:
Maxime Comtois, Dillon Dube, Carter Hart, Dante Fabbro, Cal Foote, Jonah Gadjovich, Brett Howden, Colton Point, Taylor Raddysh, Sam Steel, Tyler Steenbergen, Connor Timmins, Jake Bean.
The list of players who release statements, but did not deny involvement:
Boris Katchouk, Michael McLeod, Drake Batherson.
List of players who have not released a statement:
Alex Formenton.
Recommended articles:
- Flyers GM Daniel Briere speaks about Carter Hart’s absence amidst London police investigation
- Terrible look for NHL amidst London police’s latest step in 2018 WJC investigation
- Complete list of players under public suspicion for involvement in 2018 World Juniors scandal
- Multiple members of 2018 World Junior team implicated in allegations today
- Are Carter Hart and Dillon Dube involved in the 2018 World Juniors scandal?
