Player’s death from a skate cut to the neck in England leads to more NHL talks on cut protection
East Rutherford, New Jersey (AP) The death of American hockey player Adam Johnson in a game in England as a result of a skate blade to the neck has prompted greater discussion concerning cut-resistant equipment in the NHL and other leagues.
Commissioner Gary Bettman and Players’ Association executive director Marty Walsh spoke on Sunday in the immediate wake of the death to set up additional conversations between the league and union. For some years, the two sides have been researching skate cut injuries and ways to lessen and eliminate them, and the idea has gained traction at various levels of the sport.
“We’re going to explore everything,” Walsh said Wednesday. “We have to continue to have conversations on this as we move forward here. It’s a change for the players, but it’s also about protecting them, so I think we will have those conversations as we move forward here.”
Johnson, a 29-year-old from Minnesota, died at a hospital after being cut in the neck by the skate blade of an opponent during a game Saturday night in the Elite Ice Hockey League. The league called it a “freak accident,” and South Yorkshire Police have said they are investigating.
The incident already has had an impact across the Atlantic Ocean, with the American Hockey League and ECHL affiliates of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the organization Johnson once played for, mandating neck guards for players.
The AHL and ECHL mandated cut-resistant wrist and foot/ankle protection last summer, in consultation with the Professional Hockey Players’ Association.“We’ve seen it with other things, particularly with visors: If the players get used to it in the AHL, then they’re going to want to continue to use it in the NHL, so that’s the theory with the wrist guards and the foot socks that it’s something new and the players have to get used to it,” AHL president and CEO Scott Howson told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday. “Given what’s happened over the weekend with Adam Johnson, we are working with the NHL to figure out what the next step is in term of neck guards.”
