Formenton is one of five players from the 2018 Team Canada World Junior Hockey club to be granted indefinite leaves of absence this week from their current pro teams.

Former Ottawa Senators winger Alex Formenton is stepping away from his Swiss team to return to Canada.

HC Ambri-Piotta announced today that Formenton has been granted an indefinite leave of absence. Formenton has spent the past two seasons with the Swiss-based club, which said it will not release any further statements on the matter at the moment.

Formenton became a restricted free agent after the 2021-22 season, when he scored 18 goals for the Senators as a rookie and established himself as one of the fastest players in the NHL. Despite this, he wasn't re-signed or even traded, and eventually signed on to play pro hockey in Switzerland.

Formenton is one of five players from the 2018 Team Canada World Junior team who have taken indefinite leaves of absence this week from their current pro hockey clubs. All five have been announced in the past 72 hours.

Others now on leave include Dillon Dube of the Calgary Flames on Sunday, Carter Hart of the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, and Michael MacLeod and Cal Foote of the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, police in London, Ontario, directed five unnamed members of Hockey Canada’s 2018 World Junior Championship team to surrender, The Globe and Mail has reported.

The direction to surrender is in relation to an alleged 2018 sexual assault following a gala event in London where the world junior gold medal team was being recognized.

Since then, Hockey Canada has faced internal and external investigations for their handling of the allegations. In 2022, Hockey Canada paid out a settlement to the unidentified woman, who alleged she’d been assaulted by eight men.

London police announced the following in a press release on Wednesday:

We understand that there is significant public interest in relation to a sexual assault investigation dating back to 2018. While we are unable to provide an update at this time, we anticipate that the London Police Service will hold a press conference on Monday, February 5, 2024 to share further details.