Ottawa Senators forward ruled ineligible to play for the rest of the season
When beloved Leafs winger William Nylander held out for a contract during the summer and fall of 2018, it was big news. Insiders, beat writers, and analysts talked non-stop about the situation on a daily basis. The same can be said of Mitch Marner and Rasmus Sandin, although they only missed time in the pre-season. Nylander held out until the last minute, signing a 6-year deal 4 years ago today. Had they taken any longer to submit the deal, they would have missed the 5PM deadline on December 1st.
That deadline came and went again today with little fanfare. Although I'm not sure why. A Canadian player on a Canadian team missing the deadline should have been a massive story for weeks leading up to today. Somehow, the Alex Formenton story has gone completely under the radar. Formenton was a second round pick of the Ottawa Senators in 2017, and played in 109 games before this season, tallying 39 points. It's extremely odd that more hasn't been made of this story in mainstream hockey circles, but there may be an explanation.
Formenton was a member of Team Canada during the 2018 World Junior Hockey Championship. Eight unnamed players from that team were accused of sexually assaulting a young woman after a Hockey Canada event in London, ON. Formenton co-operated with the investigation, which leaves two possibilities. Either he was somehow connected to or involved in the assault, or the Senators weren't happy with something he told investigators. While it's important not to jump to conclusions, it won't stop people from pondering the whole thing.
Nothing has been revealed at this point and any official statements will deny the connection, but at this point, there are only so many reasonable explanations. The Senators have well over $5M in cap space this season, more than enough to sign a player with 39 points in 109 games. The fact that the media has been so quiet about the whole thing is another indication that there's something going on here behind the scenes in Ottawa that they're withholding from the public.
The other explanation, which is entirely possible, is that nobody cares about this holdout situation, which is specific to Ottawa, and their media simply isn't invested in that storyline.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 1 | 288 ANSWERS Ottawa Senators forward ruled ineligible to play for the rest of the season Are you surprised that we still don't know the names of the 8 players involved in the alleged 2018 WJC sexual assault case? | ||
| Not surprised at all | 191 | 66.3 % |
| Very surprised | 97 | 33.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
