Former players sue NHL over ‘concussion risks’
MINNEAPOLIS— Another group of former NHL players has joined the fight for compensation for head injuries they say they incurred while playing, while at the same time targeting the violence of the game that they believe brought about those injuries.
Retired players Dave Christian, Reed Larson and William Bennett filed a class action lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday alleging that the league has promoted fighting and downplayed the risk of head injuries that come from it.
The lawsuit, which is similar to one brought by former football players against the NFL, joins others filed by hockey players in Washington and New York and seeks monetary damages and increased medical monitoring. The NHL declined comment. Charles “Bucky” Zimmerman, one of the attorneys that filed the NHL lawsuit on behalf of the players, also worked on the football litigation, which resulted in the NFL agreeing to pay a $765-million settlement to thousands of former players. That settlement is still awaiting a judge’s approval, but the headlines it generated have been partially responsible for hockey players mounting their own case against the NHL. “We’ve seen it in football. It’s now here in hockey. It’s of the same genesis,” Zimmerman said. The lawsuit alleges “the NHL hid or minimized concussion risks from its players, thereby putting them at a substantially higher risk for developing memory loss, depression, cognitive difficulties, and even brain related diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease.”