Tragic Incident In Sports: The Importance Of Safety Gear After Adam Johnson's Death

Injuries are an unfortunate part of sports. When you have bodies moving, contorting, and colliding in unpredictable situations, it’s only a matter of time until someone gets hurt. What happened on October 28, 2023, however, came straight out of a nightmare. During a game in the United Kingdom’s Elite Ice Hockey League, Adam Johnson and Matt Petgrave collided. Petgrave’s skate came up and cut Johnson’s neck; the injury proved to be fatal.

American Hockey League (AHL) president and CEO Scott Howson remembers when the news reached him. “I did hear about it. I was at a hockey game. I can’t remember which game I was at; I was at an AHL game. I can’t remember what arena I was in, but I got a call from one of our general managers and he had some connections in England, and he had just been told,” Howson recounted to Newsweek. “So, I remember it quite vividly, and obviously you hear that and you think, you hope for the best, but when somebody says, somebody that’s connected in the game and they’ve been told that, even though it hasn’t come out publicly, you’re expecting the worst, I think. And the worst was what happened.”

While the NHL had seen similar situations before with Clint Malarchuk and Richard Zedník both sustaining skate cuts to their necks, those two men survived their close calls. Johnson’s death immediately kicked off a conversation about mandating neck guards to avoid another tragedy. Thus far, that change hasn’t reached the NHL level; some players have chosen to wear neck protection but it’s not mandatory. However, there has been progress at lower levels of the game.

The Canadian Hockey League, which is made up of the three major junior leagues that serve as feeders for the pro game, requires neck guards; the Western Hockey League (WHL) mandated them on November 3, 2023, coming into line with rules in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and the Quebec Major Junior League (QMJHL). USA Hockey mandated protection for players under 18 in January 2024, although that rule didn’t go into effect until August.

Now the mandate has reached Howson’s AHL. And given that the league is a step below the big leagues—players are regularly called up and sent down between the AHL and the NHL during the course of the season—that implementation is notable. It’s also worth remembering that the AHL mandated visors before the NHL followed suit.

But this isn’t the AHL’s first use of cut-resistant gear. “The summer before, the spring before [NHL Deputy Commissioner] Bill Daly and I were talking about cut-resistant sleeves and socks. And Bill had asked on behalf of the NHL general managers, would the AHL consider mandating cut-resistant sleeves? It was really based around sleeves. And we also included socks,” Howson explained. “So, when we got to the summer, the general managers in our league, you know, a lot of the general managers in our league are with NHL teams, and they supported that initiative, so we mandated cut-resistant socks and sleeves going into last year, 2023-24.”

And while the league president didn’t immediately link Johnson’s death to the need for neck protection, the dots did eventually connect. “Did I think it was ‘something had to change?’ That thought didn’t cross my mind at the time, but as time wore on you sort of thought, ‘Well, this is probably something we need to do,’” Howson said.

And the AHL did. But as with any decision, there was some minor pushback. In this case, though, there wasn’t room for compromising on safety. “There’s a process to go through, and you certainly want input from the players. Larry Landon, the former executive director of the PHPA [Professional Hockey Players’ Association], Brian Ramsay’s the new executive director, they both sit on our competition committee, and we wanted to get their input,” Howson explained.

“I think the one thing that we were concerned about a little bit, and we did get some pushback, some of the older players asked if there could be some kind of grandfathering for the neck protection. Our group just didn’t want to go there. We wanted everybody on the ice, officials, all players, to have their necks protected.”

At the NHL level, neck guards aren’t mandated yet. As laid out in a 2024 ESPN post, “commissioner Gary Bettman has previously said that the league cannot make neck guards mandatory on its own but could in conjunction with the NHL Players’ Association.” He also noted that players are free to wear neck protection if they choose, and he would encourage them to do so.

When asked about neck protection, the NHLPA shared the following statement with Newsweek via email: “The joint NHL/NHLPA Protective Equipment Subcommittee provides education to players and teams regarding cut-resistant equipment that is available to all players. The NHLPA’s emphasis is on making sure players have the necessary information to make informed choices about their equipment. Our membership continues to feel strongly that wearing cut-resistant equipment is a matter of individual preference.”

And while some players have donned the extra gear, others have provided some insight into potential objections. Shortly after Johnson’s death, Buffalo Sabres forward Rasmus Dahlin used a neck protector but removed it before the game even concluded. “I kind of tried it out for the first time during the game, but it didn’t last that long,” he explained, according to a SportsNet write-up. “I’m going to wait until they develop something. It was very warm, and I felt very uncomfortable using it, so hopefully someone develops something nicer in the near future.”

More recently, St. Louis Blues forward Robert Thomas was quoted in an AP story about expanding neck protection offering his own explanation. “For a lot of guys, it’s foreign, and you don’t want to change up what you’ve been doing your whole life,” he explained. “I think they’ve done a good job of having all that available to us. Some guys wear it, some guys don’t. I think giving guys the choice is ultimately the right decision.”

As a former player who’s spent years around the game, Howson understands where those potential objections arise. But understanding doesn’t mean compromising when it comes to the greater good. “I understand it, and I respect it. Look, we all don’t like change in our lives and whether it was a helmet, and we saw the same pushback with visors and a little pushback from this, that the players just don’t want to be, they’re willing to accept the risk,” he said. “They don’t want to be uncomfortable. They played the game a certain way with certain equipment, and you’re changing something on them. So, I certainly respect that, but there’s an overall priority here and an overall good. And sometimes you just have to make the decision that it’s better for the game.”

That decision could be part of a larger change. Given that the NHL has seen equipment-based dialogue—which has been followed by a mandate with a grandfather clause—for both helmets and, more recently, visors, there’s certainly a precedent for incremental progress. If nothing else, Howson believes we could be on the path to wider acceptance. “This is just gonna be a piece of equipment that everyone’s used to in two or three years, maybe even sooner,” he said.

And no matter the level of play we’re focusing on, player safety is bigger than wins and losses.