First of all, I’d like to start by saying that – at least at this point – no one knows whether or not anything hockey-related was in any way to blame for the death of Wade Belak. In fact, it hasn’t been proven that the deaths of Derek Boogaard and Rick Rypien had anything to do with hockey either. That will likely never be proven. Each man seemingly had his own personal demons and each man died far too young. Whether or not the fact that these men were all hockey players had any relation to their deaths is unknown. However, all three men were hockey players and because of that their deaths have rightly brought up some important issues recently.
Modern knowledge of concussions and the long term impact on those who’ve suffered them has been brought up. Depression and substance abuse have also been discussed.
All of those problems lead us to several important questions and discussions about player welfare, health, safety and the role of counselling in the NHL. One important question that has come up is the question of whether we are past the point where we should allow fighting in the NHL?
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