RED WINGS SIGN ERICSSON TO 6-YEAR, $25.5 MIL EXTENSION
Detroit: The Red Wings signed D Jonathan Ericsson to a $25.5 million, six-year contract Wednesday to keep him off the market in July. “He would’ve been tough to lose in free agency,” Red Wings GM Ken Holland said. “This was a big priority because in a two-year period, we lost Nick Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski and Brad Stuart. We couldn’t afford to lose Big E, too.” Detroit drafted Ericsson with the last pick in the 2002 NHL draft, 291st overall, and he has played in 292 games
D Paul Martin miss four to six weeks after breaking his leg in an overtime loss to Boston on Monday. Martin, 32, has two goals and nine assists in 23 games and leads the Penguins in ice time, averaging more than 25 minutes. Buffalo: The Sabres claimed F Matt D’Agostini a day after he was waived by the Pittsburgh Penguins. D’Agostini is on his fourth NHL team since 2010. He had an assist and four penalty minutes in eight games with Pittsburgh after signing a one-year deal with the Penguins in July. He was selected in the sixth round of the 2005 draft by Montreal, and spent two seasons with the Canadiens. Concussions lawsuit: Three months after the NFL agreed on a $765 million settlement with thousands of ex-players for concussionrelated health problems, a group of their NHL peers is going to court, too.
Hockey has proven to be an equally dangerous sport as football, but that doesn’t mean the link between collisions on the ice and post-career trouble will lead to a similar outcome.
The legal and cultural surround- ings of the NFL and NHL concussion lawsuits are more distinct than alike.
Start with the nature of the players themselves. Former NFL players haven’t just taken the league to task for their concussionrelated concerns; they’ve sued over all kinds of alleged misconduct, including their rights to memorabilia and highlight film revenue.
In the NHL, there’s more blatant loyalty expressed by the guys who used to don the uniforms. Hockey players have a penchant for closing ranks when controversy arises, and this is no different.
Two prominent former players, Ken Daneyko and Keith Primeau, expressed disinterest in pursuing concussion claims against the league when interviewed prior to the introduction of the lawsuit despite their lingering physical side effects from years of playing the game.
Jeremy Roenick, in an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday, was even more outspoken about his disregard for the lawsuit that was filed Monday in federal court in Washington.
“I’m not going to tell people what to do and say they’re all trying to cap on the system right now. That’s their prerogative,” said Roenick, a 20-year veteran of five NHL teams — including the Coyotes.