Golden Knights goaltender Carter Hart will stay barred from Hockey Canada-sanctioned programs through Nov. 10, 2027, after an independent appeal board confirmed he and four other members of Canada's 2018 World Junior team breached the organization's code of conduct. The ruling has no bearing on his job in Vegas, where Hart backstopped the Golden Knights to the 2026 Stanley Cup Final.
The suspension stems from a case that dates back to an incident in a London, Ontario hotel room involving members of the 2018 national junior squad. Hart and his four co-defendants, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, Michael McLeod and Cal Foote, were all acquitted of criminal sexual assault charges in July 2025, according to KTNV. Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia issued that acquittal, ruling that the complainant's testimony was not sufficiently credible or reliable to prove the criminal charges beyond a reasonable doubt, as reported by TSN.
Despite the acquittals, Hockey Canada pursued its own administrative process. The organization announced that the appeal stemming from an independent adjudicative panel's November 2023 report had concluded, per the same KTNV report. That appeal was decided by a three-member independent panel of former Ontario Court of Appeal Justice John I. Laskin and former Ontario Superior Court Justices Katherine E. Swinton and Thomas J. McEwen, who kept individual misconduct details confidential under legacy governance rules, according to TSN.
Staggered Suspensions For the Other Four Players
The appeal board's sanctions varied sharply among the five players. Formenton was reinstated immediately, while Foote's suspension runs through Nov. 10, 2026, Dube's through Nov. 10, 2028, and McLeod's through Nov. 10, 2030, the station's report notes. Hockey Canada did not disclose why the suspension lengths differed so widely across the group.
An independent investigation did not conclude that any other player from the 2018 national junior team breached Hockey Canada's code of conduct, meaning other members of that roster are immediately eligible for consideration in Hockey Canada-sanctioned programs. Following their court acquittals, the players scattered across professional hockey: Dube signed an NHL deal with the St. Louis Blues on July 1, McLeod signed with Russia's KHL, Formenton played in Switzerland, and Foote had a contract terminated by a Swedish club in July due to fan backlash, according to the Associated Press, which contributed to the KTNV report.
Why Hart's NHL Career Was Never at Risk
Hockey Canada's international ban is entirely separate from NHL playing eligibility. The NHL conducted its own independent internal review after the July 2025 acquittals and cleared all five players to sign contracts starting Oct. 15, 2025, as reported by Anadolu Agency. That distinction meant Hart's suspension from Hockey Canada-sanctioned programs while the appeal was pending never threatened his standing with the Golden Knights.
Hart signed a two-year, $4 million contract with Vegas on Oct. 24, 2025, marking his return after a leave of absence from the Philadelphia Flyers that began in January 2024, according to NHL.com. To fit his $2 million annual cap hit, the Golden Knights placed captain Mark Stone on long-term injured reserve while Stone recovered from a wrist injury, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Hart made his Vegas debut on Dec. 2, 2025, nearly two years after his last official game.
Hart was photographed during Game 4 of Vegas's first-round playoff series against the Utah Mammoth, played in Salt Lake City on April 27, as Hoodline noted in Vegas's Game 6 win. After an .891 save percentage across 18 regular-season starts, Hart took over as Vegas's starting goaltender in the postseason and posted a .909 save percentage and 2.56 goals-against average across 22 games, per HockeyFeed. That run carried the Golden Knights to the 2026 Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in six games.
A 2028 World Cup Question Looms
Hart's Hockey Canada suspension expires roughly three months before the February 2028 World Cup of Hockey, the first best-on-best international tournament since 2016, according to theScore. That timing has already fueled debate among hockey writers over whether Hockey Canada would ever put him back on a national team roster despite the code of conduct finding.
Any answer will run through a new institutional check. Hockey Canada has established an enhanced screening protocol requiring a third-party review of findings for any member of the 2018 World Junior team before that player can be considered for future international selection, KTNV reports. A player undergoing that enhanced screening could represent Canada internationally only after the third-party review is complete, though Hockey Canada has not indicated how or when such a review might unfold for Hart specifically.
For now, the two tracks of Hart's career remain on separate paths. His NHL trajectory in Vegas continues uninterrupted following Hoodline's earlier coverage of his signing after his legal battle, while his standing with Canada's national program stays frozen until at least November 2027.
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