Gary Bettman addresses 2018 Hockey Canada sexual assault case involving Carter Hart

TORONTO — There were no formal suspensions handed down on Friday for the four NHL players charged in connection to an alleged 2018 sexual assault.

But league commissioner Gary Bettman was adamant that Flyers goalie Carter Hart, as well as the three other NHL players, won’t be playing any time soon.

“They’re all away from their teams on leave,” Bettman said. “And they’re all free agents. They won’t be under contract after the season anyway.”

» READ MORE: What we know about the Hockey Canada sexual assault investigation

Hart is in the final year of a three-year, $11.937 million contract and is set to become a restricted free agent on July 1. If the Flyers don’t qualify the 25-year-old, he would become a free agent although that wouldn’t necessarily free him up to sign elsewhere yet, per Bettman.

“I would be surprised if they’re playing while this is pending,” the commissioner said Friday.

The Flyers goaltender is one of five members of the 2018 Canadian World Junior team who have been charged with sexual assault following their alleged involvement in an incident at a London, Ontario, hotel room in June 2018 following a Hockey Canada banquet. Former Ottawa Senators forward Alex Formenton, Calgary Flames forward Dillon Dubé, New Jersey Devils forward Michael McLeod, and defenseman Cal Foote are the four other players who have been charged. Each player is facing one count of sexual assault, except for McLeod, who is facing an additional charge for “being a party to the offense.” Canada’s Criminal Code defines a “party to the offense” as “anyone who actually commits an offense, does or omits to do anything for the purpose of aiding a person to commit the offense, or abets a person in committing the offense.”

Bettman in his opening statement called the allegations “reprehensible, horrific and unacceptable” and said he would tell the media “everything that I believe I can say or is appropriate to say.”

While he didn’t reveal too much about the NHL’s investigation, he did say the league’s process took about 12 months and that each player from the 2018 Canada team was interviewed. Bettman also said the NHL’s findings from its investigation would not be released until the London police investigation was complete.

“There is a serious judicial process that looks like it’s unfolding,” said Bettman. “And we didn’t, while we’re doing our investigation want to interfere with what the London Police Service was doing. And we’re not going to do anything to interfere or influence the judicial proceedings. We’re all going to have to see how that plays out and as I said in my remarks, we will then be in a position to respond appropriately which we will do.”

On Jan. 23, Hart was granted an indefinite leave of absence from the Flyers, citing personal reasons. At his midseason press conference the next day, general manager Danny Brière could not confirm if the goaltender’s leave of absence was related to the report from the Globe and Mail that morning that Hart was one of five players told to surrender to London police in connection to the 2018 incident.

“I don’t know. I really can’t tell because we don’t know anything,” Brière said. “We’re not aware of anything. There’s a lot of speculation. That’s all we know.”

According to Bettman, the league did not have advanced notice that charges were coming against the four current NHL players, or Formenton who has been playing in Switzerland since the conclusion of the 2021-22 season. Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly also confirmed that the teams involved were “really flying in the dark” regarding the findings from the NHL’s internal investigation that was opened in 2022.

“Because we don’t deal in speculation, we try to deal in facts,” Bettman said when asked why the league would not keep organizations aware, specifically in terms of signing or trading for players that could be facing legal matters. “Before we ruin a player’s career, we want to have some degree of certainty as to what we’re doing. There are lots of things that come to our attention that never materialize, and so, before we go off on some tangent, we want to make sure that there’s a basis for what we’re doing. And when we get to such a level when clubs get advice.”

With the NHL not handing out suspensions, the players alleged to be involved will be paid while on leave. Hart is getting paid $4.479 million this season. Bettman also said it would be highly unlikely that individual teams would be allowed to terminate these players’ contracts before the end of the year, saying to successfully do so “you need to be able to prove certain things.”

“This is a fairly complicated jurisprudential matter,” he said. “The fact that they’re away from their teams and not playing, I’m comfortable with. They’ve been paid the vast bulk of their salary for the year anyway, we’re coming down to the stretch run of when compensation is paid for players.”

The London police department will be holding a press conference on Monday at 2 p.m. to provide more updates on the case. Hart and the other four defendants are due to appear in a London court earlier that morning.