Insider discusses whether or not neck guard mandate is coming in the National Hockey League
Over the past 48 hours, the hockey community has rallied around the loved ones of 29-year-old Adam Johnson, who took a skate blade to the neck during a weekend game in the U.K. and tragically died as a result of his injuries.
For those who have heard the story or have seen the video, it's difficult to know that such a young player and young man was ripped off this earn far too soon, all while playing a game. Accidents occur and there's really nothing that will change that, but in this case, a neck guard could have saved Adam's life.
In the wake of Johnson's untimely and unfortunate death, there are a lot of questions surrounding what will happen in the hockey sphere to try to prevent such an occurrence from happening again. Some leagues in Europe have already begun having preliminary conversations about implementing neck guard mandates and, naturally, many questions have come up regarding what the NHL's plans are moving forward.
On Tuesday, TSN's Chris Johnston joined TSN 1050's First Up to chat about where the league is currently at with the whole neck guard mandate discussion.
CJ mentioned that sweeping changes will likely begin in junior and minor leagues prior to anything reaching the NHL level, starting more with cut resistant shirts and pants being worn under hockey equipment at those levels and testing things out there before the discussion of these items becoming mandated in the NHL can occur. He cautioned that it's still very soon after the horrifying and tragic Johnson incident to even begin to know where things are heading.
At this point, the NHL's Deputy Commissioner, Bill Daly, has already mentioned that the league plans to meet with the Players Association at some point to discuss the matter further, but the league does recommend that players begin to use neck guards. It seems to be up to the players at this point.
| POLL | ||
OCTOBRE 31 | 147 ANSWERS Insider discusses whether or not neck guard mandate is coming in the National Hockey League Should the NHL mandate the use of neck guards during games? | ||
| Yes | 110 | 74.8 % |
| No | 37 | 25.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
