Breaking: 5 members of Canada's 2018 World Juniors team potentially facing charges

London, Ontario police are nearing the end of their investigation into allegations that members of the Hockey Canada's 2018 World Junior roster had sexually assaulted a woman and Hockey Canada's representation has been ordered to release their own findings into the alleged incident via a court order.

Ontario Court of Justice judge Joseph Carnegie wrote he was ordering Hockey Canada lawyer Danielle Robitaille to turn over to police “the fruits of the independent investigation into the alleged sexual assault of E.M. that took place on or about June 19, 2018, by members of the 2018 Canadian World Junior Hockey Team. This shall include, but not be limited by, all interviews of the hockey team, the victim E.M., independent witnesses, and the coaches and staff. This shall also include any digital or forensic evidence, including, but not limited to, surveillance videos, text message conversations, or social media-based conversations.”

“The court shall thereafter examine the sealed material and convene a hearing to receive submissions from the Crown and from affected parties who may have a privilege to assert,” Carnegie wrote. “The court will rule on any claims of [solicitor-client] privilege and decide whether or not any of the seized documents or data will be released to the police.”

According to investigative reporter Rick Westhead of TSN, the records indicate that London police believe they have reasonable grounds to charge five players with sexual assault.

So far only Ottawa Senators forward Alex Formenton has been implicated in the court of public opinion, but it's worth noting that Formenton, nor any other member of Canada's 2018 WJC roster, have been charged with a crime. Still, this hasn't stopped the public from digging into the weeds on this matter. While the likes of players like Cale Makar, Carter Hart, Victor Mete, Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou have all given alibis and have essentially been exonerated, the public continues to scrutinize the cases for players like Formenton, Drake Batherson, Boris Katchouk, Taylor Raddysh and Brett Howden. Again, it's worth noting that none of these individuals have been charged of even implicated by the police, but these are the players who seem to have found themselves in the cross hairs of social media sleuths.

Needless to say, there's still a lot more to come out regarding these allegations.