Evgeny Kuznetsov Enters NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program
Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program on Monday, the league announced.
Kuznetsov was absent from practice this morning for what the team labeled “personal reasons.” 31-year-old AHL veteran Michael Sgarbossa was recalled from AHL Hershey to replace Kuznetsov on the active roster.
The Russian center will now be out indefinitely while he receives care from the program, and he will not be cleared to return until PAP administrators clear him for on-ice competition. The 31-year-old is in his 11th season with the Capitals after the franchise selected him 26th overall in the 2010 draft.
This is Kuznetsov’s second time entering the program, which was previously known as the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program. He did so voluntarily in 2019 after a positive drug test for cocaine while playing for Russia at the 2019 IIHF World Championship.
Kuznetsov’s 0.40 points per game this season are the lowest of his career, including his limited rookie showing in the 2013-14 campaign. Through 43 games, he has six goals, 11 assists, 17 points, and a 43.2% Corsi share at even strength while averaging 18:47 per game.
He’s only two years removed from a 24-goal, 78-point season, both of which were the second-best numbers of his career. He has one season after this remaining on an eight-year, $62.4MM deal signed in July 2017 that carries a $7.8MM cap hit. The contract carries a modified no-trade clause which awards Kuznetsov a 10-team no-trade list.
With Kuznetsov out for the foreseeable future, Sgarbossa is expected to make his season debut for the Capitals on Tuesday against the Canadiens in a third-line role between Anthony Mantha and Max Pacioretty. Sgarbossa likely won’t be a longer-term fixture in Washington’s top-nine, however, and Kuznetsov’s absence could influence the Capitals to give 21-year-old Hendrix Lapierre another shot after playing 25 games earlier this season. Lapierre, the 22nd overall pick in the 2020 draft, is currently on assignment to Hershey, where he has 11 points in 16 games this season.
Penguins Sign Jesse Puljujärvi To Two-Year Deal
The Penguins signed UFA winger Jesse Puljujärvi to a two-year contract on Sunday, per a team release. The 2016 fourth-overall pick will earn $800K per season through the end of 2024-25.
Per PuckPedia, Puljujärvi will earn the league minimum $775K salary this season before seeing a $50K pay bump in 2024-25. He will be an unrestricted free agent for the second time in his career when the deal expires.
Puljujärvi, 25, had four goals and nine points in 13 games on a PTO with Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after returning from a double hip surgery he had received during the offseason. He began training with the Penguins in early December, signing a PTO at the NHL level to do so.
The Finnish winger looked like a long-term fixture in the Oilers’ top six as recently as two years ago. A long and winding development path led him to a career-best 2021-22 campaign in which his 36 points and +22 rating in 65 games, oftentimes playing alongside Connor McDavid, earned him a spattering of Selke Trophy votes. Their line with Zach Hyman was arguably the best in the league that season at generating offense, producing 4.18 expected goals per 60 minutes, according to MoneyPuck.
However, Puljujärvi regressed significantly in 2022-23. After posting five goals and 14 points (along with a -11 rating) in just 12:15 of average ice time compared to the prior season’s 16:14, the Oilers cut bait with their former top prospect and traded him to the Hurricanes for the signing rights to forward prospect Patrik Puistola. His possession impacts rebounded down the stretch with Carolina, but the point production did not – he went without a goal in 24 regular-season and playoff games and added only three assists. As such, the Hurricanes opted not to issue Puljujärvi a qualifying offer and let him become a UFA last July.
Last summer’s surgery suggests his skating and overall play were hampered by a lingering hip issue in 2022-23, and the Penguins are banking on his ability to keep driving possession in a limited role out of the gate. There is a fair amount of upward mobility for Puljujärvi in Pittsburgh if his play warrants it – underwhelming seasons from Rickard Rakell and Reilly Smith have created multiple openings in the team’s middle six. He may be best used in a bottom-six role to start, however, as poor defensive play from veterans like Noel Acciari and Matthew Nieto has been one of the team’s biggest weaknesses. Puljujärvi could provide an upgrade there and boost the team’s goal differential, even if he’s not providing a truckload of offense himself.
Mattias Samuelsson Out For Season With Upper-Body Injury
Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson requires surgery to repair an upper-body injury and will miss the rest of the 2023-24 campaign as a result, the team announced Sunday.
Samuelsson, 23, missed four out of the last six games before the All-Star break with upper-body injuries and was listed as day-to-day. The 2018 second-round pick finishes the 2023-24 season with one goal, six assists, seven points, and a +4 rating in 41 games.
The son of long-time Flyers blue-liner Kjell Samuelsson put up the best two-way numbers of his young career this season, the first in a seven-year, $30MM extension ($4.29MM AAV) signed in October of 2022. His 50.8% Corsi share at even strength was a career-high, and his pairing with Rasmus Dahlin has seen the most usage of any Sabres duo with 440 minutes together, per MoneyPuck.
The improvement in play is despite another injury-plagued campaign that prevented him from developing much consistency. He missed a handful of contests earlier in the season with a spattering of lower-body and undisclosed injuries, and he never played more than 14 consecutive games.
His most concerning stat remains his low games played total. Injuries limited Samuelsson to 55 contests last season, which remains his career-high since entering the league in 2021. Even if he continues developing into a top-pairing-caliber shutdown defenseman on a playoff team, his long injury history at a young age creates significant concern about his current contract, which runs through the 2029-30 season.
Samuelsson is eligible for LTIR, although the Sabres don’t need the cap relief that would provide. They remain with over $8MM in projected cap space, per CapFriendly, and could settle for placing Samuelsson on standard injured reserve to open up a roster spot if necessary.
The injury could translate into more ice time for 2019 first-round pick Ryan Johnson, who hasn’t looked out of place in his first NHL showing this year. He’s still looking for his first NHL goal through 30 games, but he has added six assists and owns a promising 52.1% Corsi share at even strength while averaging 14:33 per game.
NHL To Allow Players To Attend 2026, 2030 Winter Olympics
12:35 p.m.: Commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed an agreement has been reached with the IIHF to send players to the 2026 and 2030 Winter Olympics to media today. Bettman added the league has been given “assurances” that the venue under construction for ice hockey in Milan will be completed on schedule.
9:56 a.m.: The NHL and IIHF have reached a deal to allow players to participate in both the 2026 and 2030 Winter Olympics, ESPN’s Kevin Weekes said Friday. An official announcement is expected from the league later today after the IIHF quickly posted and deleted a post confirming the news on X, formerly known as Twitter, this morning.
Also expected Friday afternoon is an announcement confirming the NHL’s plans to hold a best-on-best international tournament in 2025 between Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States, per Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. The tournament will be hosted in Boston and Montreal and will result in no All-Star Game being held next year.
2026 will mark the first time NHL players participate in the Olympics since the 2014 edition held in Sochi, Russia. Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, have already been tabbed as the 2026 hosts, although concerns about the construction timeline for the Olympic rink in Milan may force the ice hockey competitions to be moved to Turin, which hosted the Winter Olympics in 2004.
The host for the 2023 Games has not been named, although Salt Lake City, Stockholm, Switzerland, and the French Alps region have submitted bids. The French Alps bid entered the “targeted dialogue phase” late last year and is the most likely host for the 2030 edition, while Salt Lake City will likely receive the 2034 Games.
Milan will mark the first Olympic appearance for all of the NHL’s next generation of stars, including Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl, David Pastrňák, Cale Makar, and many others. It’s unclear whether Russia will field a team at the event – they are currently barred from IIHF competition due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the 2025 four-nations-style tournament will be the first true exhibition of best-on-best international play involving the world’s highest-ranking men’s hockey countries since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
Kings Fire Todd McLellan, Name Jim Hiller Interim Head Coach
The Kings have fired head coach Todd McLellan, according to a team statement Friday. Assistant Jim Hiller will serve as Los Angeles’ interim head coach for the remainder of the 2023-24 season.
McLellan, 56, was in the final season of a five-year contract earning him roughly $5MM per season, according to CapFriendly. He’d signed a one-year extension prior to this season, which the Kings will still owe him.
The veteran NHL head coach oversaw the Kings’ return to relevancy after their late-2010s retool, posting a 164-130-44 record in 338 appearances and guiding them to playoff berths in back-to-back seasons for the first time since a five-year run between 2010 and 2014. A team with Stanley Cup aspirations this year has now fallen out of the divisional playoff picture, though, going 3-8-6 in their last 17 games and narrowly occupying a Wild Card spot.
Most pointed to the Kings’ lack of stable goaltending entering the season as a reason why their record might crumble. Interestingly enough, that hasn’t been the case. While he’s going through a recent rut, veteran Cam Talbot has given Los Angeles above-average play with a .911 SV% and 2.5 goals saved above expected (per MoneyPuck) in 32 appearances. Since a mid-season recall from AHL Ontario, backup David Rittich has been excellent, with a .925 SV% and a 5-1-3 record in 11 games.
They’ve also dominated possession. Their expected goals share and Corsi share at 5-on-5 play both rank third in the league, but despite that, their offense has struggled to produce with subpar shooting talent. Their 152 goals scored rank 16th in the league at the All-Star break – exactly in the middle of the pack.
That would still assign blame to a roster construction issue and not a coaching one, given the team’s systems under McLellan, have been conducive to dominating play. The team’s biggest offseason swing, a trade and subsequent eight-year, $68MM extension for Pierre-Luc Dubois, has crashed and burned. The 25-year-old has 10 goals and 20 points in 48 games, far below expectations. He’s averaging under 16 minutes per game and has a team-worst -16 rating.
Nonetheless, Los Angeles will turn to a different voice to ensure they maintain their playoff spot and don’t slide further down the Western Conference standings. Hiller has been on the Kings’ staff since the beginning of last season after being let go as an assistant by the Islanders in the 2022 offseason. Prior to a three-year tenure on Long Island, Hiller served as an assistant in Toronto from 2015 to 2019 and spent the 2014-15 season as an assistant on the Red Wings’ bench. Before ascending to the NHL coaching ranks, he spent nearly a decade as a head coach in the WHL with the Chilliwack Bruins and Tri-City Americans.
Hiller’s NHL career was short-lived, but 40 of his 63 games came wearing a Kings jersey in the 1992-93 season when the Wayne Gretzky-led team advanced to the Stanley Cup Final. Hiller was involved in a major mid-season trade with the Red Wings that year, heading to Detroit along with future Hall-of-Famer Paul Coffey in a deal for winger Jimmy Carson.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Jets Acquire Sean Monahan From Canadiens
10:39 a.m.: The Canadiens have confirmed the deal as reported.
9:44 a.m.: The Jets are nearing a deal to acquire center Sean Monahan from the Canadiens, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports Friday. Montreal will receive a first-round pick plus a conditional later-round pick in return, per TSN’s Darren Dreger. Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press confirms the first-round pick is Winnipeg’s 2024 selection. Dreger adds the conditional pick is a third-round choice in 2027, which will be transferred to Montreal if the Jets win the Stanley Cup this season.
TSN’s Darren Dreger said earlier Friday that interest in Monahan had spiked after the Flames opened trade season by dealing first-line center Elias Lindholm to the Canucks on Wednesday for an expansive return. The Jets and an undisclosed team were still in talks with the Canadiens as of Friday morning, according to Dreger’s report.
Monahan, 29, is on a one-year contract carrying a $1.985MM cap hit with a $2MM AAV. The difference comes from a $15K performance bonus awarded if he reached 26 games played in 2023-24 that the Canadiens have already paid out, per CapFriendly.
The Jets will not have to concede a roster player in this deal for financial purposes. They have $3.8MM in accumulated cap space at the time of the deal and can absorb Monahan’s full contract without retention. The Athletic’s Arpon Basu confirmed the Canadiens are not retaining salary in the trade.
While Monahan may not have the two-way acumen and minute-munching reputation of Lindholm, he’s outpaced his former Flames teammate on the scoresheet this season. The 2013 sixth-overall pick has managed to avoid injury this season and, as such, is having his best offensive campaign since his career-best 34-goal, 82-point season in 2018-19.
At the time of the deal, Monahan is tied for second on the Habs in goals with captain Nick Suzuki (13), third in assists (22), and ranks third on the team with 35 points. His 399 faceoff wins are the most of any Canadien. After missing the last 57 games of last season with groin and foot injuries, he looks no worse for wear and is shouldering top-six minutes in the process, averaging 18:27 per game.
That production comes despite Montreal head coach Martin St. Louis using Monahan in a shutdown role. 61% of his zone starts at even strength have come in the defensive zone, 16% higher than his career average. As such, he’s struggled to replicate his strong possession numbers from last season’s limited stint in the Habs lineup, but he has posted a positive relative possession share in limited minutes on the penalty kill and contributed two shorthanded goals.
The Jets don’t need Monahan to shoulder such heavy defensive zone usage – captain Adam Lowry has that handled down the middle. He can, however, fill the second-line center role behind Mark Scheifele and create a domino effect in the Jets’ middle six. With Monahan in the fold, capable secondary scoring options Mason Appleton and Nino Niederreiter can now anchor a third line with Lowry, and 22-year-old Cole Perfetti can maintain a second-line role with a little less responsibility on the wing. Monahan isn’t a long-term acquisition – at least not yet – and making the deal doesn’t impact Perfetti’s long-term standing as a potential piece down the middle in Winnipeg.
Notably, Canadiens GM Kent Hughes has now recouped two first-round picks for two seasons and 74 games of Monahan’s play. Montreal acquired a conditional 2025 first-round pick from the Flames to take on the final season of Monahan’s previous contract, which carried a $6.375MM cap hit. After posting six goals and 17 points in last season’s 25-game showing, Hughes signed Monahan to his current one-year deal in June.
While the Jets won’t need to make any salary cap-related moves to get this trade done, they may need to waive two players after the All-Star break if Scheifele and David Gustafsson are ready to return from their respective injuries. Both players are currently on injured reserve, but after acquiring Monahan, the Jets have a full 23-player roster with no room to activate them. The only waiver-exempt player on the Jets’ roster is Perfetti, who won’t be sent down.
Vancouver Canucks Acquire Elias Lindholm
The Vancouver Canucks announced that the team has acquired forward Elias Lindholm from the Calgary Flames. In return, the Canucks will send Andrei Kuzmenko, Hunter Brzustewicz, and Joni Jurmo, a first-round pick in 2024, and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2024. The Flames have also confirmed the deal.
Being a part of the Flames organization for the better parts of six seasons, Lindholm has turned into an effective two-way threat across the league. During his time in Calgary, Lindholm played in a total of 418 regular season games, scoring 148 goals and 357 points in the process. His best offensive output came during the 2021-22 season, scoring 42 goals and 82 points in all 82 games, helping the Flames finish third place in the Western Conference.
With their eyes already set on the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs in this deal, Lindholm brings limited postseason experience. Over his five full seasons in Calgary, Lindholm managed to take part in the postseason in three of those seasons, going as far as the Western Conference semi-finals. In 27 postseason games, Lindholm has scored eight goals and 17 points as well as a 55.5% success rate on the faceoff date, a bit of an improvement over his 53.3% regular season average throughout his career.
It will be interesting to see how exactly the Canucks deploy Lindholm, as J.T. Miller has shown considerable effectiveness as the team’s second-line center. With Lindholm’s versatility up and down the lineup, the team may opt to move either player to the wing to keep them both in the top six. Nevertheless, now tied at the top of the league standings, it will be increasingly difficult for any opponent to match up against a combination of Lindholm, Miller, Elias Petterson, and Brock Boeser on any given night. 
After the deal was first reported, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reported that no extension talks have been discussed between Lindholm and the Canucks. If Vancouver is indeed viewing him as a rental, the Flames received quite a haul for an asset the Canucks may only have for a few months.
Originally, Calgary was reportedly on Kuzmenko’s 12-team no-trade list, but LeBrun later confirmed that Kuzmenko signed off on his inclusion in the deal. Not fitting into Rick Tocchet‘s system in Vancouver, the Canucks have been looking to move on from Kuzmenko for nearly the whole season.
In the first season of a two-year, $11MM extension signed with Vancouver last season, Kuzmenko brings much-needed offensive prowess to the top of the Flames’ lineup. In a forgotten season last year for the organization, Kuzmenko finished fourth on the team in scoring, putting up 39 goals and 74 points in 81 games.
Setting aside some healthy scratches earlier in the year, Kuzmenko has still produced respectably this season, scoring eight goals and 21 points in 43 games. Furthermore, Kuzmenko’s powerplay abilities have led him to 17 goals already in his young career, which should help a Flames powerplay unit that currently sits 29th in the NHL.
As far as the prospects heading to Alberta, Brzustewicz was originally drafted 75th overall by the Canucks in last year’s draft. Suiting up for the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL this year, Brzustewicz appears to be somewhat of a diamond in the rough. In 47 games played for the Rangers, Brzustewicz has scored eight goals and a whopping 61 assists, which is an impressive 17 more than the next closest player. With the Flames set to miss several defensemen to either trade or free agency by next season, the right-handed shooting Brzustewicz could feature in the lineup as soon as next year.
Jurmo, another defenseman, was also a third-round selection of Vancouver going 82nd overall in the 2020 NHL Draft. Not having made his professional debut in North America yet, Jurmo does not bring a similar offensive pedigree to the table as Brzustewicz. Nevertheless, standing at 6’4″, Jarmo can cover large swaths of ice for the Flames defensive core. Still playing in his native Finland, Jurmo has scored a total of four points in 35 games split between Ilves and KooKoo of the Finnish Liiga this year.
In the draft picks, the first-round selection acquired in the deal will undoubtedly be at the bottom of the draft, given that Vancouver is on pace to win this year’s President’s Trophy. Owning both their own and the New Jersey Devils’ fourth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, the Canucks will be able to choose which pick exactly ends up in Calgary.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that talks were intensifying between Calgary and Vancouver.
Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff was the first to confirm that Lindholm was headed to the Canucks.
Friedman was the first to report that Brzustewicz would be headed to Calgary.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Blue Jackets’ Adam Fantilli Out Eight Weeks
Blue Jackets rookie Adam Fantilli will miss approximately eight weeks with a calf laceration sustained Sunday against the Kraken, the team announced Wednesday.
Fantilli sustained the injury when Seattle forward Jared McCann‘s left skate made incidental contact with Fantilli’s left calf as he attempted to lay a hit. The skate reached Fantilli’s calf despite him wearing multiple layers of protective equipment, including Kevlar socks, per multiple sources.
The 19-year-old has largely been successful in what’s been a tumultuous season for Columbus. Through 49 games, the 2023 third-overall pick has 12 goals, 15 assists and 27 points while averaging 15:42 per game.
An eight-week recovery timeline from today puts Fantilli back in the Blue Jackets lineup with 10 games remaining in the regular season. He will be out through the Trade Deadline and is looking at a return during the last week of March.
Critics of Fantilli’s two-way game during his rookie season will point to his -21 rating, but there’s more to that number than meets the eye. He’s controlled 48.4% of Corsi events at even strength – 1% higher than the Blue Jackets’ total share without Fantilli on the ice – good enough for seventh on the team. His rating has been brought down by goaltending, as Columbus netminders have a .861 SV% when Fantilli is on the ice in all situations.
He’s bounced around the lineup this season, but head coach Pascal Vincent has most commonly used Fantilli either at center between veterans Johnny Gaudreau and Justin Danforth or on a ‘Kid Line’ of sorts with Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov. Other Blue Jackets youngsters, namely Yegor Chinakhov and Kent Johnson, will likely receive a bit more ice time with Fantilli out of the fold.
Canucks Sign Patrik Allvin To Multi-Year Extension
11:04 a.m.: It’s a three-year deal for Allvin, CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal reports. Allvin will be under contract through 2027, the same term as Rutherford.
10:02 a.m.: The Canucks have signed general manager Patrik Allvin to a multi-year extension, per a team announcement Wednesday.
Allvin, 49, celebrated his two-year anniversary in the GM role for Vancouver last Friday. He’d previously worked under Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford with the Penguins, first in scouting roles from 2012 to 2020 before being promoted to an assistant GM role ahead of the 2020-21 campaign.
Pittsburgh named Allvin their interim GM after Rutherford resigned in Jan. 2021, although that lasted for only 12 days until they brought in Ron Hextall for an ill-fated run in the manager’s chair. When Rutherford found a new home as president of hockey operations in Vancouver later that year, he appointed Allvin GM shortly thereafter.
In a short time, Allvin’s work has kicked the Canucks’ decade-long span of middling performances to the curb, seemingly ushering in an era of contention with an Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes-led core. The Canucks are 8-0-2 in their last ten games and would win the President’s Trophy if the season ended today, boasting a 33-11-5 record through 49 games at the All-Star break.
His two largest signings, a seven-year, $56MM deal for J.T. Miller and a three-year, $19.95MM deal for Brock Boeser, have paid off in spades this season. The deals faced a fair bit of criticism when they were signed in the summer of 2022, but Miller is tied for fourth in the NHL with 67 points, and Boeser is tied for sixth with 30 goals.
Allvin’s biggest free-agent splash, a four-year, $19MM deal for Ilya Mikheyev in 2022, has been a decent bit of business as well. Now healthy, the 29-year-old is on pace for 18 goals and 42 points this year.
He’s also made 19 trades during his tenure as GM, notably sending captain Bo Horvat to the Islanders in Jan. 2023 for depth winger Anthony Beauvillier, center prospect Aatu Räty, and a 2023 first-round pick. That first-round selection was later packaged with a second-round pick and sent to the Red Wings for Filip Hronek, who sits fifth on the team in scoring with 36 points in 49 games and has formed arguably the league’s best defense pairing alongside Hughes this season. Beauvillier was later flipped to the Blackhawks for a conditional fifth-round pick in 2024.
Allvin’s signature moment in Vancouver is still ahead of him, though. The 25-year-old Pettersson is still a pending RFA and needs a new deal to return to the Canucks next season. He’ll earn well north of his $8.82MM qualifying offer on a longer-term deal.
The team has not confirmed the length of Allvin’s extension, although they recently signed Rutherford to a three-year deal carrying him through the 2026-27 season.
Five Players Facing Charges Connected To 2018 Sexual Assault Investigation
5:50 p.m.: Attorneys representing Foote have confirmed that the London Police Service has charged him with sexual assault, per Westhead. Claiming innocence in the statement, Foote’s attorneys did not confirm what plea he would enter.
4:50 p.m.: Attorneys representing Hart have confirmed that the London Police Service has charged him with sexual assault, per TSN’s Chris Johnston. Claiming innocence in the statement, Hart’s attorneys did not confirm what plea he would enter.
4:45 p.m.: Attorneys representing Dube have confirmed that the London Police Service has charged him with sexual assault, per Westhead. Dube will enter a not-guilty plea before the court.
3:14 p.m.: Attorneys representing McLeod have confirmed that the London Police Service has charged him with sexual assault, per Westhead. McLeod will enter a not-guilty plea before the court.
2:41 p.m.: Five players whose rights are owned by NHL teams are facing charges stemming from a London, Ontario police investigation into an alleged 2018 sexual assault involving members of the Canadian men’s national junior team, TSN’s Rick Westhead reports Tuesday. Per Westhead, Flyers goaltender Carter Hart, Devils center Michael McLeod, Devils defenseman Cal Foote, and Flames winger Dillon Dubé have been directed to surrender to London police.
Senators forward prospect Alex Formenton, who has not been under contract with the team since 2022, is the fifth player facing charges and surrendered himself to London police Sunday, according to his attorneys.
Robyn Doolittle of The Globe and Mail first reported last week that five players had been told to surrender to police to face charges connected to the 2018 incident. Neither the NHL nor the Flyers, Devils, Flames, or Senators have released statements on the matter.
As Ian Mendes and Chris Johnston of The Athletic outlined Tuesday, discipline for players involved in off-ice misconduct falls under the jurisdiction and discretion of league commissioner Gary Bettman. If league action is taken against any of the five players named, they have the right to file an appeal with an independent arbitrator.
It is unclear whether the Flyers, Devils and Flames have the jurisdiction to terminate the standard player’s contracts of Hart, McLeod, Foote, and Dubé, given the definition of a material breach of the contract is not expressly defined.
All four players remain on indefinite leaves of absence from their respective teams. Formenton is on an indefinite leave of absence from HC Ambrì-Piotta in the Swiss National League, where he’s contracted for the 2023-24 season.
The London Police Service is expected to hold a press conference next Monday to comment further on the charges. Attorneys for Hart, McLeod, Foote, and Dubé did not respond to or declined requests for comment from Westhead.