Philadelphia Flyers General Manager Danny Briere has confirmed that former goaltender Carter Hart will not be rejoining the team.

Hart was one of five members of the 2018 Canadian World Juniors team on trial this year regarding the alleged sexual assault of a young woman in a team hotel. He was acquitted of the charges. 

It has been confirmed that all five players will be eligible to play in the NHL again. They are not allowed to sign contracts any sooner than October 15, and cannot feature in any NHL games before December 1. 

Naturally, there has been intense speculation about which teams could possibly sign these players, considering the significant backlash on social media that the group has been allowed to return to the NHL at all. 

The Flyers were rumored to have interest in re-signing Hart, who was with Philadelphia from 2018 until 2024, where he was granted an extended leave of absence after charges were pressed before ultimately being let go by the team and becoming an unrestricted free agent. 

During a press conference on Tuesday, however, Briere shut down any possibility of a reunion between Hart and his former team, stating, "The only comment I’ll make on that is that his representative has reached out and told us they felt that it was better for them to look for a fresh start.”

After trading Ivan Fedotov to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday, the current goaltending lineup is made up of Sam Ersson and Dan Vladar (NHL) and Aleksei Kolosov and Carson Bjarnason (AHL).