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All five members of Canada’s 2018 World Junior Team who were charged with sexual assault continued to play in the NHL for more than five years between the time of the alleged assault and when they issued statements pleading not guilty. .
Players such as Dillon Dube, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart and Michael McLeod were recently placed on leave from their respective teams after being told to surrender to police.
The pending charges, which police are expected to announce on Monday, are that the woman was attacked by multiple players in a London hotel room on June 19, 2018, after a Hockey Canada Foundation event where the World Junior Team was unveiled. in connection with sexual assault charges against. A ring commemorated his gold medal win earlier that year.
Let’s take a closer look at the players.
Dillon Dube
home town: cochrane, alberta
Year: twenty five
background: Dube was the captain of Canada’s 2018 World Junior Team and was a top-line player on the team that won a silver medal at the previous year’s Games as a minor.
Drafted in the second round of the 2016 draft by the Calgary Flames, he is no stranger to national team duty, having previously represented his country in the U-18 Ivan Hlinka Summer Tournament.
Dube made his NHL debut with Calgary on October 3, 2018, and after two seasons back and forth in the AHL, he eventually established himself as a full-time member of the Flames.
He has played in 325 NHL games with Calgary, scoring 57 goals and 127 points, but has struggled this season under new head coach Ryan Husker, and both his ice time and offensive output have significantly increased in recent years. It had declined to .
Dube is in the final year of a contract that will pay him $2.4 million this season.
On January 21, the Flames announced that they had been granted an indefinite leave of absence for mental health reasons, writing, “Dillon is under the care of medical professionals and we request that Dillon’s privacy be respected during this time.” ” he said.
cal foot
home town: Kelowna, British Columbia
Year: twenty five
background: The son of former NHL defenseman Adam Foote and younger brother of current Devils forward Nolan Foote, he dived to puck the puck off his team’s goal line late in the Boxing Day win over Finland at the 2018 World Juniors. He produced a highlight scene in which he wiped out the entire city.
Cal Foote was drafted 14th overall by Tampa Bay in 2017 and made his NHL debut with the Lightning on January 13, 2021, after spending several seasons with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch.
He was in and out of the lineup during the pandemic-shortened season and didn’t appear in the playoffs at all, but his name was engraved on the Stanley Cup after the Lightning won their second consecutive championship. .
After years of failing to secure a full-time job on Tampa’s blue line, Foote was traded to Nashville along with five draft picks in a deal that brought back Tanner Janott last February.
Foote played in 24 games for the Predators, but no team made him a qualifying offer by the June deadline, making him an unrestricted free agent. He signed a two-way contract with the Devils in August worth $800,000 at the NHL level, guaranteeing at least $450,000 this season, and spent most of the year in the AHL before being recalled to New Jersey earlier this month when injuries mounted. Spent time in Utica.
The Devils announced that Foote has been granted an indefinite leave of absence after he missed a team charity gala on Jan. 23 and practice on Jan. 24.
alex formenton
home town: Barrie, Ontario
Year: twenty four
background: Formenton, the youngest member of the 2018 Canadian World Junior Team, actually played in an NHL game before participating in the tournament, making seven substitutions and playing nearly five minutes against the Senators on October 7, 2017. Spent time on the ice.
A second-round pick by Ottawa earlier that year, he was eventually sent back to juniors with the OHL’s London Knights.
Formenton played nine NHL games with Ottawa to begin the 2018-19 season before being sent back to London and making the AHL All-Rookie team the following season after a solid performance in his first professional season with Belleville. Selected.
His NHL breakthrough came in the 2021-22 season, when he had 18 goals and 32 points in 79 games with the Senators, but it was short-lived. Formenton, a restricted free agent, passed the Dec. 1 deadline without signing a new contract with the Senators and was deemed ineligible to play in the NHL next season.
That prompted him to head to Switzerland, where head coach Ambri Piotta announced the deal on December 14, 2022, knowing there was an ongoing criminal investigation in London involving Canada’s world junior team. said in a press release. The Swiss team said Formenton is presumed innocent in the matter, but added: “If a new investigation by Canadian police reveals elements that are currently unknown, the club and the player will re-evaluate their contractual relationship. “We reserve the right to do so,” he added.
Formenton signed a new contract with head coach Ambry Piotta for an undisclosed amount in October.
On January 24, the club announced that Formenton had been placed on indefinite leave for personal reasons and was allowed to return to Canada.
carter hart
home town: sherwood park, alberta
Year: twenty five
background: Arguably the biggest star of Canada’s 2018 World Junior Team, Hart has amassed an 8-0-2 record in his two appearances in that tournament and has long been touted as a franchise NHL goaltender. .
He is a two-time Canadian Hockey League Goaltender of the Year and was the first player at his position taken in the 2016 NHL Draft, taking him to Philadelphia with the 48th overall pick.
Hart spent just two months in the AHL before making his Flyers debut at age 20 on December 18, 2018, and has effectively become a full-time NHLer since then.
Not only was he selected to represent Canada at the 2019 IIHF World Hockey Championship, where he won a silver medal as backup to Matt Murray, but he would also be on the country’s 2022 Olympic team if NHL players were allowed to participate. It was widely believed that winning the right was certain. Beijing.
Hart is in the final season of a contract that pays him $4.48 million.
He has had ups and downs on the ice in recent years as part of a rebuilding Flyers team, but when the team announced it had granted his request on January 23, he posted a 12-9-3 record and save percentage. He left a score of 906. An indefinite leave of absence due to personal reasons.
michael mcleod
home town: mississauga, ontario
Year: twenty five
The younger brother of current Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan McLeod, he was one of the returning members of Canada’s World Junior team in 2018, serving as its third-line center.
McLeod has a long history with Hockey Canada as a previous participant in the World U-17 Hockey Challenge, Ivan Hlinka and the U-18 World Championship.
He was the No. 12 pick out of New Jersey in 2016, made his NHL debut with the Devils on Nov. 30, 2018, and bounced back and forth between AHL Binghamton before becoming a full-time player in a depth role over the past three games. He secured an NHL spot. Plus season.
McLeod has played in 287 NHL games, with his most productive season coming in 2023-24, setting a new record with 10 points in 45 games while already playing at a 35-point pace.
He is playing on a one-year contract worth $1.4 million.
The Devils announced that McLeod was placed on indefinite leave after he missed a team charity gala on Jan. 23 and practice on Jan. 24.
even deeper
What can the NHL do if a player is charged with a crime?
(Top photo: Andy Devlin/Getty Images)
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