Hockey Canada has announced continued suspensions for four of the five members of Canada\u2019s 2018 world junior hockey team who were acquitted of sexual assault charges last year.<\/p>\n
Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dub\u00e9 and Cal Foote had been charged with sexual assault in connection with an alleged incident in June 2018, when a woman said she was sexually assaulted over several hours in a London, Ont., hotel room. The players were found not guilty<\/a> on all charges in July 2025 following a months-long, highly publicized trial.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Hockey Canada said an independent appeal board confirmed all five players breached the Hockey Canada code of conduct for their actions in 2018 and recommended formal suspensions from Hockey Canada-sanctioned programs, which the governing body accepted.<\/p>\n Formenton has been reinstated immediately, while the other four remain suspended: Foote until Nov. 10, 2026, Hart until Nov. 10, 2027, Dub\u00e9 until Nov. 10, 2028, and McLeod until Nov. 10, 2030.<\/p>\n In its announcement, Hockey Canada did not explain the varying suspension lengths. The independent appeal board consisted of three former judges: John Laskin, Katherine Swinton and Thomas McEwen.<\/p>\n According to Hockey Canada, any player under consideration for a national team will be subject to an enhanced screening process<\/a>, introduced in 2023 in the wake of the sexual assault charges, that includes a criminal records check and social media screening.<\/p>\n The NHL reinstated the players<\/a> Dec. 1 but said in a September news release that their conduct fell \u201cwoefully short of the standards and values that the League and its Member Clubs expect and demand.\u201d<\/p>\n Last season, only Hart played for an NHL club (the Vegas Golden Knights) after signing a two-year, $4 million contract<\/a>. Dub\u00e9 signed a free-agent contract with the St. Louis Blues on July 1 after playing for the Blues\u2019 AHL affiliate in Springfield.<\/p>\n Last week, Swedish Hockey League team F\u00e4rjestad BK terminated its contract<\/a> with Foote, just two days after signing him to a one-year deal. F\u00e4rjestad BK said in a statement that it initially conducted a \u201cthorough review\u201d of Foote through \u201cseveral conversations with people with good insight into the matter,\u201d before signing him last Tuesday. However, the club\u2019s \u201coverall perception and assessment\u201d of Foote changed in the following days, leading them to end their association with Foote on Thursday.<\/p>\n McLeod has played in the KHL since 2024, mostly with his current Russian team, Avangard Omsk. Formenton played parts of two seasons for HC Ambr\u00ec-Piotta in Switzerland\u2019s\u00a0National League from 2022 to 2024. He did not play at all in the 2024-25 season but rejoined the team<\/a> for its 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hockey Canada has announced continued suspensions for four of the five members of Canada\u2019s 2018 world junior hockey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,271,289],"class_list":["post-165761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-olympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}