TAMPA, Fla. — Kraken defenseman Justin Schultz remembered former teammate Adam Johnson as “a super nice kid” and was stunned at Saturday’s news he’d been killed in an on-ice mishap playing professionally in England.
The pair teamed together briefly with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2018-19 and 2019-20 — as did other Kraken players Jared McCann, Brian Dumoulin and Brandon Tanev — when Johnson played all 13 games of his NHL career. Johnson, 29, was playing for the Nottingham Panthers of the Elite Ice Hockey League and died after his throat was slashed by the skate blade of an opposing player who’d attempted to bodycheck him.
“We’re all a big family in hockey and when something like that happens, it’s so tragic and unfortunate,” Schultz said Monday. “It scares you. He was just a nice kid. A young kid. It’s horrific.”
But Schultz, just like almost the entirety of the NHL, went out Monday night and played the Tampa Bay Lightning without wearing any neck protection. While minor hockey in Canada mandates neck protectors, as have the Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, there are no such requirements in USA Hockey, the Western Hockey League, NCAA or the North American professional ranks.
“I have no idea — I don’t know why it’s not a thing,” Schultz said of pros shunning neck guards. “Obviously, it’s not going to happen too much but just to have one incident like that, it’s very serious. I don’t know. Maybe it’s something that’s going to change in the future.”
While serious cuts from blades are indeed rare, there have been some high profile injuries. Buffalo Sabres goalie Clint Malarchuk nearly died in a 1989 game in which his carotid artery was sliced and jugular vein partially severed by a skate blade in his crease area.
Then, in 2008, Richard Zednik of the Florida Panthers had his carotid artery cut and was bleeding profusely as he raced to his dressing room for emergency treatment. Both players ultimately survived but the emotional scars affected them greatly.
One of the bigger non-pro cases of a player having his throat cut came in March 2014 when Kraken defenseman Will Borgen, then 17, was at an invitation-only hockey camp and had a blade tear through the muscle in his neck. The blade missed Borgen’s carotid artery by millimeters, though it left a gaping hole in his neck that required emergency hospitalization.
But Borgen, who has a 3 1/2 -inch scar in his neck, also still doesn’t wear protection.
Borgen has received several interview requests since Johnson’s death. A Kraken spokesperson said he is no longer comfortable talking about his injury and would rather not speak to the media about it.
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol never wore neck protection as a minor pro player and neither did his players with the University of North Dakota or in the NHL. Hakstol said reasons can vary, with some players not feeling comfortable playing with the protective devices commonplace at lower levels of the sport.
Others even question how effective the devices would be stopping a skate blade at the faster-paced NHL level.
But Hakstol added that “technology is constantly changing in the game” and elite players are more receptive to protective gear that’s modeled to their needs.
“As technology evolves, players continue to add effective forms of equipment to protect them whether it’s in one area or another,” Hakstol said. “So, when the proper technology is there and readily available, players are taking the steps to keep themselves as safe as they can in this game.”
There have been forms of Kevlar turtleneck sweaters made for amateur hockey players, though pros often complain they leave them too hot. Stanwood, Washington native T.J. Oshie of the Washington Capitals owns an apparel company that he last year had design turtleneck shirts with protective plastic inserts around the throat area.
Oshie has yet to use the shirts, but told The Athletic over the weekend that he’s having some shipped to him and a handful of teammates so they can experiment with them.
Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn on Monday showed the Kevlar socks he wears to protect his feet and ankles from getting cut should a blade slice through his skate boot. Dunn wore a mandated neck protector while playing for the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs, but ditched them upon turning pro.
“Most of the time, it was just for the refs to be able to see something,” Dunn said of how junior players wore their devices. “I remember guys would tape them in half and some of the guys would just take the (protective) stuff out of them. Just for comfort and mobility.”
Dunn called Johnson’s death “devastating” but questioned whether a neck guard could have prevented what happened. Video of the incident shows an opposing player’s leg flying up backward and striking Johnson in his neck as he was pitched forward.
“You see that some guys are wearing wrist guards and things like that now,” Dunn said. “So, I guess you have to find a balance between safety and comfort. The wrist guards that we wear and the socks I’m wearing right now, they’re cut resistant but it’s not 100%.”
Plus, he said, there are many body parts susceptible to lethal blade cuts.
In December 2019, when Dunn was in his second season with the St. Louis Blues, the goalie for his former IceDogs junior team, Tucker Tynan, 17, had his upper leg gashed by a skate blade in his crease and nearly bled to death before emergency treatment and surgery.
“You could go head-to-toe in Kevlar, I don’t know,” Dunn said. “It’s kind of a tough balance to do. I’m not sure what we’ll do moving forward. I think you’ll definitely see more people start to wear them. It’s just really devastating. I don’t really know how to react right now.”
