Four of the five Canadian junior players charged with sexual assault stemming from a June 2018 incident in London, Ontario, have been released by their NHL teams after failing to receive qualifying offers before Sunday's deadline.

Carter Hart of the Philadelphia Flyers, Dillon Dubé of the Calgary Flames, and Michael McLeod and Cal Foote of the New Jersey Devils are all now unrestricted free agents. They had both been on paid leave from their teams since late January, when they were ordered to surrender to the London Police Service to face charges of sexual abuse.

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No trial date has been set. It was up to each team to decide whether to make a qualifying offer by Sunday’s 5 p.m. ET deadline to retain those players’ NHL rights, and the Flyers, Flames and Devils all decided against it.

If they had done so and the offers had been accepted (which would almost certainly have been the case), the players would have continued to be paid their salaries while they were on leave, while the legal proceedings would have played out until perhaps the entire following season.

There are currently no restrictions on their ability to sign directly with another team, deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed to The Athletics on Sunday night. But it will likely be difficult for any of them to do so, given all the uncertainty surrounding their situation.

According to league sources familiar with the discussions, the NHL and the NHL Players' Association have held discussions in recent weeks about possibly freezing the players' status pending a trial, but they have been unable to reach an agreement on how to do that.

It is possible that Hart, Dubé, McLeod and Foote will explore opportunities to continue their careers in Europe, as Alex Formenton, the fifth player to emerge alongside them, played the past two seasons in Switzerland with HC Ambrì-Piotta.

Formenton's NHL rights remain with the Ottawa Senators until July 1, 2027, as he received a qualifying offer after the 2021-22 NHL season that he did not accept and was subsequently placed on their reserve list.

The five players are facing charges stemming from a June 2018 incident in a room at the Delta London Armouries Hotel following a Hockey Canada Gala celebrating the world junior team's gold medal win.

Two charges of sexual abuse were filed against McLeod, and one each against Dubé, Foote, Formenton and Hart.