By Nick Tricome
Copyright phillyvoice
The book is closed on Carter Hart in Philadelphia.
The goaltender will be eligible to sign an NHL contract on Oct. 15, and play in games again on Dec. 1, but if and when, Flyers general manager Danny Brière said Tuesday that it won’t be with his team.
“So the only comment I’ll make on that is that his representative, Judd Moldaver, has reached out and kind of told us that in light of everything that happened in the last year and a half with Carter, they felt, and Carter felt, that it was better for them to look for a fresh start,” Brière told the local media during a pre-training camp press conference at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees. “So that’s where it’s at, and it’s the only comment I’m gonna make on it.”
Hart, 27, was charged with one count of sexual assault in the reopened 2018 Hockey Canada sexual assault case, alongside several of his former Canadian World Junior teammates – Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote, Michael McLeod, and Alex Formenton.
Hart took a leave of absence from the Flyers in January 2024 to face his charge in Canadian court. His contract expired during the proceedings, and the Flyers did not issue the goaltender a qualifying offer to retain his rights, making him an unrestricted free agent.
All five players were found not guilty of their sexual assault charges in late July, but at the time, the NHL had yet to make its own ruling on the eligibility for any of them to resume their careers.
Last Wednesday, Flyers governor Dan Hilferty and president of hockey ops Keith Jones spoke to the media in Voorhees about the state of the organization. They were asked about any potential interest in bringing back Hart, but Hilferty quickly deferred any comment on that to the league itself.
“At this point, we’re gonna make no comment on that situation,” Hilferty said. “The NHL has made it clear they’ll speak first, but right now, we’re not prepared to comment at all about the Carter Hart situation.
“The NHL has told us they’re running the show.”
A day later, the league issued its decision to permit the players to sign in October and resume play in December, along with its statement on the matter.
“In relying on both our own investigation, and the conclusions reached by [Justice Maria Carroccia] in her opinion, and the players’ acquittal, the League has determined that the conduct at issue falls woefully short of the standards and values that the League and its Member Clubs expect and demand,” part of the statement read.
“Given their conduct,” the statement continued later, “we carefully evaluated the players’ acquittal in court and the time spent away from the game. Taking into account that the players have been away from the game for 20 months — including since their acquittals in July — we have determined that the players will be eligible to sign an NHL contract no sooner than October 15, 2025, and eligible to play in NHL games no sooner than December 1, 2025, bringing their total time out of the League to nearly two years.
“The League expects and requires that, going forward, each of the players will uphold the standards required of NHL players both on and off the ice.”
The Flyers are set to move forward with Sam Ersson, Dan Vladar, Aleksei Kolosov, and Carson Bjarnason as their goaltenders for this coming season, Brière said.
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