NHL teams did not re-sign 4 ex-world juniors players accused of sexual assault

The four NHL players who played on Canada’s gold medal-winning 2018 world junior team and who were charged with sexual assault are now free agents after their teams did not re-sign them.

Carter Hart, Michael McLeod, Cal Foote and Dillon Dube did not receive offers from their teams by the Sunday deadline.

London police charged them, along with Alex Formenton, who played in a Swiss league for the past two seasons, in February for an alleged group sexual assault in 2018.

The players are still awaiting trial and their lawyers have said they deny the allegations.

A woman sued Hockey Canada in 2022, alleging she was sexually assaulted by eight members of Canada’s world junior team after a fundraising gala in London in 2018.

Hockey Canada settled the lawsuit, and then an investigation revealed the organization had two secret funds to pay settlements on claims of sexual assault and abuse.

According to London Det. Sgt. Katherine Dann, the alleged incident happened in the early morning hours of June 19, 2018, after one of the accused met the victim at a bar and took her to Delta Hotel London Armouries.

According to court documents previously available, the woman, then 20, alleged that “John Doe #1” took her to a hotel room and invited seven other men into the room to perform undisclosed sexual acts, intimidating her and preventing her from leaving.

The woman said in the lawsuit the men directed her to take a shower and asked her to say on video she was sober.

Dann said London police received a call later on June 19, 2018, from a relative of the victim and launched an investigation. That was closed in 2019 with no charges.

The 2022 suit, which sought $3.55 million in damages and was dropped after the settlement was reached with Hockey