Todd: Gary Bettman has NHL fate of five acquitted former junior stars in his hands

Montreal Gazette

a day ago

Hockey
Over to you, Gary.
With the help of a roomful of pricey legal eagles, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton and Cal Foote might managed to skate past Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia last week — but they're going to have to get past a tougher and less pliable judge if they wish to return to the National Hockey League.
Early indications are, it's going to take more than some fancy stickwork if you want to slip by the most powerful individual in hockey, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
The NHL statement, issued immediately after Justice Carroccia delivered her not guilty verdicts in the trial of the five members of the 2018 World Junior championship team charged in connection with the alleged sexual assault in a London hotel room, was unequivocal.
'The allegations made in this case, even if not determined to have been criminal, were very disturbing and the behaviour at issue was unacceptable,' the statement read. 'We will be reviewing and considering the judge's findings. While we conduct that analysis and determine next steps, the players charged in this case are ineligible to play in the league.'
Predictably, the NHLPA begged to differ. The union never has a problem with the miscreants in its ranks, whether they're putting other union members in jeopardy on the ice or bringing the game into disrepute away from it.
That won't trouble Bettman in the least. His career record against the NHLPA is roughly 117-0, so if they want to tangle with the Queens bulldog they're welcome to try. Bettman understands that in this case there is a wide gulf between 'not guilty' and 'innocent' and he clearly wishes to set a higher standard for player behaviour going forward.
The league will take its time. Ultimately, I would expect the players to be suspended for at least another year and to have to satisfy Bettman that they have some degree of remorse and a desire to be better before they will be allowed to return — following the pattern that saw Stan Bowman and Joel Quenneville back in the league.
Individual teams will also have a say with players who will be free agents when and if they are reinstated. The Calgary Flames embarrassed themselves by lying about the reason Dubé left the club in the first place, claiming it was for mental health reasons. Would they want to taint their image further by trying to re-sign Dubé, whose contract with Dinamo Minsk expired in May? Doubtful.
As for the other skaters, McLeod is eminently replaceable and Foote and Formenton were marginal players even before they were charged.
That leaves Carter Hart and a Flyers team that used three underwhelming goalies last year — Samuel Ersson, Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov. But Hart's three-year deal expired last year, leaving him an unrestricted free agent.
If Hart is eventually cleared to play, someone, sadly, will take the plunge.
Maltos for the kick: On an Alouettes roster loaded with physical specimens who appear to have negative body fat, Jose Maltos stands out because he looks like he got lost trying to find the press box and ended up in uniform.
But the Alouettes kicker has the leg and then some. The blast that won last Thursday's game in Calgary was as powerful as it was clutch. Officially, the kick was 58 yards. Unofficially, it was closer to 65 yards and right down the middle. Maltos is still four yards short of Paul McCallum's CFL record 62 yards but it's a good bet he'll break that record before he's through.
Catch of the year: Milt Stegall has been emphatic about it, and I agree. At its best, the CFL is a great league. More than worthy of the attention of anyone fed up with the greed and hype of the NFL.
Sunday night, B.C. Lions defensive back Robert Carter Jr. put an exclamation point to Stegall's claim with a catch that will go down as one of the greatest in the history of the game. If you haven't seen it, it's worth a Google.
OH. MY. GOODNESS. WHAT AN INCREDIBLE CATCH BY ROBERT CARTER JR. FOR THE INTERCEPTION #CFL pic.twitter.com/eNfzTiZfjo
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) July 28, 2025
Happy Birthday, Rachel: On July 19, Rachel Robinson, possibly the wisest individual it has ever been my pleasure to interview, passed her 103rd birthday. Incredibly, it has been 79 years since she and her husband, the incomparable Jackie Robinson, broke the colour barrier in white baseball right here in Montreal.
Robinson was born in 1922. She has seen it all, from the long fight to end in segregation in the U.S. South to the riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King. Sadly, her most recent birthday passed with the U.S. in the grip of a wave of virulent racism that has spread from the White House across the country.
Ending it, I fear, will take the courage and class of many more like Rachel Robinson.
Heroes: Jose Maltos, Robert Carter Jr., Summer McIntosh, Leylah Fernandez, Gabriel Diallo, Kabion Ento, Tadej Pogacar, Xander Zeyas &&&& last but not least, Rachel Robinson.
Now and forever.