Report: Former NHLer Alex Formenton files lawsuit against former agent
According to a report from TSN’s Rick Westhead, former Ottawa Senators forward Alex Formenton has filed a lawsuit against Newport Sports Management Inc., a player agency that Formenton was a client of, along with his former agent Wade Arnott.
The $20.5 million lawsuit alleges Arnott and the company of negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract.
The 25-year-old believes he suffered income loss during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, which saw him play for HC Ambri-Piotta of the National League in Switzerland. Formenton also alleges it cost him future income arising from not playing the NHL because of Newport and Arnott’s misconduct.
“As his agent, Wade and Newport Sports owed Alex a duty of care,” Formenton’s lawsuit reads. “At all material times, they were negligent in exercising their duties as agent to Alex and did not meet the required standard of care expected of a professional agent. Alex pleads that the services and counsel provided by Wade and Newport Sports were done negligently, carelessly and unskillfully.”
The allegations from Formenton haven’t been tested in court yet. He has asked the court to award him $20 million in damages, along with $500,000 in punitive damages due to Newport’s “bad faith and high-handed conduct.”
Formenton was taken by the Senators in the second round of the 2017 NHL Draft. He had already signed a player-agent front with Newport, which saw the then-17-year-old rely on Arnott and Newport to help sign his entry-level contract. After his original contract was done by July 2022, Formenton denied his initial qualifying offer from the Sens, which had a cap hit of $787,500.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in Ontario Superior Court last week, Formenton says he contacted Arnott asking for advice on how to proceed with a new deal. The lawsuit alleges Arnott and Newport didn’t advise Formenton that the offer could be extended beyond July 15, 2022, and that they didn’t request the Sens’ offer to be extended.
The lawsuit states that the player-agent contract between Formenton and Newport expired on July 12, 2022.
“For the remainder of July to December 2022, Wade continued to represent and hold out to Alex that he would yet be offered a new contract by the Ottawa Senators,” the lawsuit reads. “Wade advised that even without an accepted offer or extended qualifying offer his dealings with the Ottawa Senators on behalf of Alex was ‘business as usual’ and that Alex should rely on Wade and Newport Sports to secure a favourable offer.”
The advice ended up being wrong, as Ottawa didn’t propose or agree to a new deal with Fromenton prior to Dec. 1, 2022, making him ineligible to play for the rest of that season. That led the former London Knight to sign in Switzerland.
During contract negotiations with Ambri-Piotta, the lawsuit reads that Arnott failed to advise Formenton about the ramifications of leaving North America to play in Europe and the impact it may have on continuing a career in the NHL.
The lawsuit states that Formenton ended his relationship with Newport in January 2024, the same month he took a leave of absence from Ambri Piotta.
That same month, Formenton and four other members of the 2018 Canadian World Junior team were ordered to surrender themselves to London Police Services and be charged in connection to an incident in June 2018 in which a woman was allegedly sexually assaulted at a hotel after an event hosted by Hockey Canada. Formenton was the first to turn himself in.