Hockey player Carter Hart, one of five players acquitted of sexual assault charges in Canada, has signed a new contract with the National Hockey League (NHL) Vegas Golden Knights.
The players – all members of Team Canada's gold-medal-winning World Junior Championships – were accused of assaulting a woman known as EM in a hotel room in 2018 in the Canadian province of Ontario. They were cleared in July.
The NHL consists of 32 teams in North America – 25 from the United States and seven from Canada.
Hart became the first to sign with an NHL team as he ruled that exonerated players could not join teams until October 15 or play in games until December as part of the reinstatement process.
Speaking at a press conference, the 27-year-old said he was “excited to move forward.”
“It's been a long road to get back to this point, to get back to hockey, the game that I love, and I haven't played in a year and a half,” Hart said, adding that he “learned a lot.”
In a statement on X, the Golden Knights said they “remain committed to the core values that have defined our organization since its inception and expect our players to continue to live up to those standards in the future.”
Michael McLeod, one of the other players acquitted in the case, last week signed a three-year contract with Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League in Russia, the NHL said. The remaining three remain free agents.
Hart, McLeod and fellow hockey players Dillon Dube, Alex Formenton and Cal Foote were all found not guilty of sexually assaulting EM following an eight-week trial that attracted significant attention in Canada. Hart was the only player to testify in his own defense.
In her ruling, the judge said she did not find EM's evidence “credible or reliable” and that “the Crown cannot meet its burden on either count.”
The central issue in the trial was whether EM, who was 20 at the time of the incident, consented to each sexual act in the hotel room that night. The team attended the Hockey Canada gala.
The court heard the woman met the players in a bar and then returned to the hotel room to have consensual sex with Mr McLeod. Other players then entered the room and continued to perform sexual acts on her.
The players' lawyers argued that she asked the men to have sex with her and they believed she consented.
E.M., however, testified that she was intoxicated and was afraid of men. Although she initially agreed to have sex with Mr McLeod, she testified that she did not agree with what happened next.
Before the trial began, the case forced a reckoning within Hockey Canada, which is largely seen as Canada's voice in hockey on the international stage, after it was revealed the sporting body had reached a quiet settlement with the alleged victim in 2022 and set aside a fund to settle similar allegations.
Hockey Canada lost major sponsors, faced a parliamentary investigation, and federal funding was frozen. A plan was later announced to address “systemic problems” in hockey culture.
The NHL said in a September statement: “The events that occurred following the 2018 Hockey Canada Foundation Gala in London, Ontario, prior to the arrival of these players in the NHL, were deeply troubling and unacceptable.
“The League expects everyone associated with the game to conduct themselves with the highest level of moral integrity. And in this case, although not found to be criminal, the conduct of the players involved certainly did not meet that standard.”
