The Western Hockey League is making neck guard protection mandatory for all players including those playing for the Kelowna Rockets and the Kamloops Blazers.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Kelowna Rockets/Steve Dunsmoor
November 01, 2023 - 4:05 PM
The Western Hockey League is making neck guard protection mandatory for all players including those playing for the Kelowna Rockets and the Kamloops Blazers.
As of Nov. 3, or as soon as protective equipment is available to teams, neck guard protection will be mandatory for all players during the leagues’ games and practices, according to a WHL release. The WHL is anticipating challenges in the delivery of protective neck guard equipment due to the increased demand.
The mandate comes after the death of form NHL player Adam Johnson in the U.K.
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.
READ MORE: Player's death from a skate cut to the neck in England leads to more NHL talks on cut protection
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Players' Association executive director Marty Walsh touched based Sunday in the immediate aftermath of the death to set up further talks between the league and union. For several years the two sides have been studying skate cut injuries and how to reduce and avoid them, and now the topic has taken on greater urgency at various levels of the sport.
The American Hockey League and ECHL affiliates of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the organization Johnson once played for, are 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.
No such mandate currently exists in the NHL, though many players have added Kevlar or other protective material in the decade since five-time All-Star Erik Karlsson suffered a torn Achilles tendon from a skate cut. Evander Kane missed more than two months last season after his left wrist was cut by a skate blade.
— With files from The Canadian Press.
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