Flyers

Carter Hart on Indefinite Leave of Absence

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jan 23rd, 2024 · 4:16 PM EST

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Flyers news:

Per Philadelphia Flyers General Manager, Daniel Briere:

“Carter Hart has requested and been granted an indefinite leave of absence citing personal reasons. The club will have no further comment at this time.” pic.twitter.com/jC1GyxcKWR

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 23, 2024

Carter Hart and Dillon Dube, both members of junior Team Canada 2018, have taken leaves from their NHL teams. Might be just a coincidence, unrelated, but it appears as though some kind of ruling on the sexual assault scandal may be coming shortly.

— Steve Simmons (@simmonssteve) January 23, 2024

Welp, guess Sam Ersson is your starter for the time being.

Everybody should be familiar with the Hockey Canada scandal at this point, and we’ve avoided all Hart-related speculation until the ruling is actually made, but if you’re not familiar with what Steve Simmons is talking about, this involves five members of the 2018 World Juniors team, accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room following a fundraising event in the summer of that year. Initially investigated by London (Ontario) police, the case was closed in February of the following year with no charges, but the investigation was reopened in 2022. Hart never commented on the investigation, but did say he was fully cooperating.

We’ll update this once more info comes out. Like Simmons says, could be related, or could be a total coincidence. People are obviously going to speculate, so an explanation of the speculation is warranted.