Insider Says Carter Hart WILL Play in NHL — With a Caveat

It's been a couple of weeks now since the 'Hockey Canada Five' were acquitted of sexual assault charges in the 2018 incident during a World Junior Hockey Championships event. So far, nary a word about any of the former NHLers' eligibility status.

The league still has to give the thumbs up for them to play (though the NHLPA is challenging that). But if and when they do, the one player who will certainly be on many teams' radars would be Carter Hart.

Will the former Philadelphia Flyers No. 1 goaltender get another NHL chance? Insider Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period was asked that very question, on TSN 690 with Melnick in the Afternoon. His answer came with a caveat:

I think he will play in the NHL. I’m not sure it'll be this year. Because I think that if anybody’s considering him, it’s too close to the occurrences of the trial.
What went down over there was certainly not acceptable, but here’s the thing, they were proven not guilty. He has a right to go on and earn a career, but I think the NHL is doing the right thing, saying 'Wait a minute, you can’t do it right now'.
So, like with Joel Quenneville, like with Stan Bowman, I think eventually Carter Hart, and maybe the other players might find their way back to the NHL. Do I think it’s this year? I don’t.

Hart, along with Dillon Dube, Michael McLeod, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton were all found not guilty of the charges, but the uneasy details of the incident were revealed through the court proceedings, leaving the NHL and potentially interested teams with a difficult PR choice on whether to pursue them—at least, this quickly, as Bernstein suggests.

Hart had a .906 save percentage and 2.94 goals against average in his six NHL seasons. Hart is an unrestricted free agent after his three-year, $3.979 million AAV deal expired at the end of the 2023-24 season, while he was on a 'leave of absence.'