The death of professional ice hockey player Adam Johnson from a freak injury has renewed debates about protective hockey equipment. On Oct. 28, the 29-year-old died after being cut in the neck by a skate blade during an English league hockey game.
In the days since Johnson’s death, hockey players and organizations have called for neck guard mandates. Neck guards are designed to prevent a cut to the neck, rather than spinal cord or throat injuries from a puck or stick. They are available as stand-alone protective gear or embedded into a turtleneck long sleeve.
Hayley Wickenheiser — four-time Olympic gold medallist, medical doctor and assistant general manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs — has called for mandating neck protection at “every level in hockey.”
