NHL removes ability to buy jerseys from Hart, Dube, Foote and McLeod

The hockey world was turned upside down yesterday with the announcement from London Police that five members of Hockey Canada's 2018 World Juniors gold medal winning team have been ordered to surrender themselves within the next two weeks. 

Subsequently Calgary Flames forward Dillon Dube, Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Carter Hart, New Jersey Devils defenseman Cal Foote and forward Michael McLeod, all members of that 2018 version of Team Canada, all took indefinite leave from their NHL teams. Additionally, former NHL forward Alex Formenton, who was playing pro hockey in Switzerland, took leave from his team and is reportedly flying back to Canada. 

Fans are beginning to connect the dots and these five individuals are now all under scrutiny in the court of public opinion.

Today, fans discovered that not only have Hart, Dube, Foote and McLeod been officially removed from their team's official rosters but the NHL has removed the ability to even buy jerseys or t-shirts with the players' name(s) on them.

From some fans on social media:

There's still nothing official from the NHL or any of these players' teams about these suspicions but, as the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. The NHL may not have an official statement out there, but the fact that you can't buy their jerseys should tell you everything you need to know.

Full credit to TSN's Rick Westhead and to multiple reporters at The Globe and Mail for keeping on top of this story. If these allegations weren't brought forth to the public, there's a very real chance that Hockey Canada would have simply swept this under the rug.

With all of the information floating around the past couple days, I figured it would be worthwhile to take a look again at the video and text message exchanges between one of the accused players and the victim herself, released by The Globe and Mail back in July, 2022.

Lawyers released text messages and videos to The Globe and Mail which seem to contradict, but nevertheless shed more light onto what exactly happened that evening. First, the Globe acquired videos which showed the alleged victim stating that the acts that evening were consensual.

From the Globe:

The first video clip shown to The Globe is six seconds long and was recorded at 3:25 a.m. on June 19, 2018, the lawyers said. It shows a woman from the neck up. A male voice can be heard saying “You’re ok with this?”

“I’m ok with this,” the woman says.

The second clip is 12 seconds long and taken about an hour later at 4:26 a.m. The same woman appears to be covering herself with a towel in a hotel room, with a closed door to the hallway visible in the background.

“Are you recording me?” she asks. “Ok, good. It was all consensual. You are so paranoid, holy. I enjoyed it, it was fine. It was all consensual. I am so sober, that’s why I can’t do this right now.”

Now, it should be noted that these statements could be made under duress. After all, the young woman was presumably still in the hotel room with 8 young men at the time of the recordings. And I mean... who films acknowledgement of sexual consent? Seems odd to me, but then again I've been off the free agent market for awhile now so what do I know? In any case, the woman's claims in a text message the next day with one of those young men seem to point to the fact that she wasn't in fact "ok with it." After her and her mother filed a report with police, this text interaction happened between herself and an unnamed player.

More from the Globe:

“You said you were having fun,” the player wrote.

“I was really drunk, didn’t feel good about it at all after. But I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble,” she replied.

“I was ok with going home with you, it was everyone else afterwards that I wasn’t expecting. I just felt like I was being made fun of and taken advantage of.”

In her statement to police the woman claims alleges "she felt an imminent fear of physical harm and at times was crying and tried to leave the room" but was “directed, manipulated and intimidated into remaining, after which she was subjected to further sexual assaults.”

Despite this, it appears from her text messages that she did try to walk back her statements police.

Again, more from the Globe:

“You need to talk to your mother right now and straighten things out with the police before this goes to far. This is a serious matter that she is misrepresenting and could have significant implications for a lot of people including you,” the player wrote.

The woman apologized for any trouble it might have already caused.

“Can you please figure out how to make this go away and contact the police,” the player asked. He texted a few times over the next few hours to check whether anything had been done.

“I appreciate that your going to put an end to this I know this must not be easy for you to have to call the police and say this was a mistake,” he wrote.

Finally that evening the woman said, “Told them I’m not going to pursue it any further and that it was a mistake. You should be good now so hopefully nothing more comes of it,” she wrote.

Suffice it to say that there's some very conflicting information here and we can only hope that the truth ultimately comes out and plays out in court.