Concussion Protocols

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Here's a story from The Athletic, centred mostly on the Devils and Lou Lamiorello, but also involving Calgary and Montreal, where it is confirmed they did not follow concussion protocols. Calgary and Montreal were fined, but the article doesn't stipulate the dates these took place.




Concussion depositions reveal Devils, Flames, Canadiens failed to follow protocols
By Katie Strang 2h ago

With new documents surfacing in the wake of the ongoing litigation between former players and the National Hockey League, more details are coming to light about the way the league and its member clubs handled concussions.

And judging by several depositions taken in the concussion suit vs. the NHL, which have become publicly available through court record, multiple teams were disciplined for the ways in which they failed to adhere to and enforce certain protocols concerning head injuries.

Testimony from league officials and NHL team executives revealed that the New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens were all found to be noncompliant in following certain NHL-mandated rules. And though these depositions reference penalties to both the Flames and the Canadiens, testimony indicates the Devils were neither fined nor disciplined for their infractions.

Of the three teams, the Devils were most frequently mentioned in relation to noncompliance. Both deputy commissioner Bill Daly and NHL counsel Julie Grand acknowledged in their respective depositions the Devils’ failure to follow certain standards — and in at least one case joked about it.

Former team president and general manager Lou Lamoriello admitted in his deposition that the team did not even perform baseline neuropsychological testing in 2007, even though it had been required by the league for a decade by that point.

This testing is performed before the onset of every season to provide teams with a “baseline” of where each individual measures, thereby allowing them to compare how a player scores when concussed, suspected of being concussed or suffering head trauma.

In an extensive review of documents performed by The Athletic, Lamoriello acknowledges that the Devils did not perform preseason baseline neuropsychological testing in 2007, though the rationale was not immediately clear, at least not in the unredacted portions of his deposition.

“I was never brought aware that we did not do it, other than the period of time that I did mention, and there was a reason, not an excuse, that that did not happen,” Lamoriello states in his deposition, taken on Jan. 22, 2016.

Lamoriello, who is now the general manager of the New York Islanders, returned a message left by The Athletic but said he did not wish to comment on the deposition. The NHL also declined to comment when asked why the Devils did not perform preseason baseline testing in 2007, along with other questions related to the concussion litigation depositions.

In an NHL memorandum used as an exhibit in the deposition, the league states that under the Baseline Neuropsychological Evaluation rules, “all players under contract with the Club in the NHL shall undergo baseline (neuropsych) testing prior to engaging in full contact play.” When asked about this rule, Lamoriello seemingly takes issue with the word “shall” (“I never saw the word in the dictionary, ‘shall,’ to be mandatory but …”) and responded with a “I have no comment” when asked what the words means, before ultimately answering that it means “will, should.”

Lamoriello, when questioned in the deposition about the team’s failure to perform preseason baseline testing in training camp, said the team did perform testing later that year.

“So just to be clear, the one year that the Devils did not perform baseline testing at the — before the start of the season, when did the Devils actually perform the baseline testing on those players?” Stuart Davidson, a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the concussion suit vs. the NHL, asks Lamoriello.

LAMORIELLO: “Postseason.”

DAVIDSON: “Postseason. Does that mean during the playoffs or at the end of the entire season inclusive of the Stanley Cup?”

LAMORIELLO: “It would be at the end of the season.”

Lamoriello added later that he did believe players who were “concussed or suspected of being concussed” during the 2007-08 season received the mandatory follow-up neuropsych testing as required by the NHL “to the best of my knowledge.”

Grand’s deposition, in which she is questioned by plaintiffs’ lawyer Steve Grygiel, also confirms the league was aware the Devils may have failed to conduct baseline testing on more than one occasion.

GRAND: “Yes.
— one year hearing that they had not tested their players, and we followed up with them at various points throughout that season. And in April of that season, they did the neuropsych testing on their players.”

GRYGIEL: “Do you remember speaking with (hockey operations VP) Steve Pellegrini of the Devils about that issue?” [editor’s note: Pellegrini was named as the Islanders’ new assistant general manager on Tuesday].

GRAND: “That sounds familiar.”

GRYGIEL: “And do you remember telling him that Mr. Lamoriello needed to get on board with this, because the neuropsych testing was not optional?”

GRAND: “In sum or substance, that sounds familiar.”

GRYGIEL: “And do you remember Pellegrini telling you that he would look into it?”

GRAND: “I probably would have followed up at that point on my call, sure.”

Additionally, Grand’s testimony, taken on Aug. 3, 2016, raises the question of whether the Devils had transgressed on this issue more than once. Following the aforementioned exchange, Grand is then asked whether she recalls an additional instance of this happening after the 2007-08 season, to which she responds:

“It, it has a vague familiarity, but I don’t remember the time period.”

The following section is redacted.

Daly also admitted to joking about the Devils’ noncompliance in an email exchange with Grand that was raised in Daly’s deposition, taken on Aug. 9, 2016. Daly acknowledged that he and Grand had “numerous discussions over time about Devils compliance issues” and revealed that the two were concerned that Devils defenseman Bryce Salvador’s concussion diagnosis was possibly a way to circumvent the salary cap. (Salvador did indeed suffer a concussion.)

GRYGIEL: “And do you remember (Grand) telling you how convenient from a team that apparently has never had a concussion before?”

DALY: “I think we were both kind of making fun of the Devils in the context of an email exchange. It was probably inappropriate.”

Daly went on to say, however, that the Devils were never fined for noncompliance with the neuropsych testing program, nor was the team ever fined for noncompliance with the concussion protocol. Daly later said that the Devils “have responded every time we have had interactions with them about compliance with the concussion protocol.”

They may not have been fined, at least according to Daly’s deposition, but there were already rumblings about how the team managed head injuries.

In a 2015 story, former Devils forward Mike Peluso told longtime beat writer Rich Chere that he blamed the team for “throwing” him back onto the ice after he suffered a concussion and seizure during the 1993-94 season and that he felt “used and beaten.”

“I’ve come to the realization that I’m going to die young,” Peluso said.



Peluso, who played for the Devils from 1993-97 and was a member of the vaunted “Crash Line” with Randy McKay and Bobby Holik, is among approximately 150 plaintiffs in the ongoing concussion lawsuit against the NHL.

He filed a $5 million lawsuit against the Devils and St. Louis Blues, as well as Chubb insurance, in April 2017 for contributing to his early onset dementia and total and permanent disability.

The suit alleges that the defendants “deliberately, fraudulently, and with callous disregard for Mr. Peluso’s health and safety, concealed medical records from him that stated very clearly that his health was in danger and that he must never sustain any further traumas to his head if he were to avoid debilitating, long-lasting brain damage.”

The suit reveals a letter from board-certified neurologist Marvin Ruderman that warns of future head injuries following Peluso’s seizure, which occurred in February 1994.

“I do not believe that the participation in playing hockey in itself poses an excessive risk for the development of further seizures,” Ruderman’s findings, copied to Lamoriello, team doctor Barry Fisher, team orthopedic surgeon Leonard Jaffe, state, with one major caveat — “unless he were to sustain head injuries.”
Figure 3, via master complaint; Peluso vs. New Jersey Devils, St. Louis Blues, and Chubb Insurance

In December 2016, a workers’ compensation appeals board ruled that the Devils “wrongfully withheld” medical records from Peluso, according to an article from TSN.

Some former Devils players, however, paint a very different picture of Lamoriello and his attitude on head injuries and player safety.

Salvador, the former Devils defenseman and captain who retired at age 39 in 2015, wrote an essay in The Players’ Tribune about his struggles to return to play after being struck in the face by a slapshot in 2010 and ensuing, persisting vestibular issues.

In the essay, Salvador detailed his attempt to come back from the injury, describing how he dealt with high-pitched ringing in his ears that lasted for months, intense nausea and severe mood swings. During this time, Salvador said Lamoriello was nothing but encouraging when he sought out treatment from myriad specialists to address his injuries and pervasive symptoms.

“I went and sat down with Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello and I admitted to him that I was not getting better. That was a tough moment. Here I am making good money, and I’m telling my GM that the doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong with me. But Lou was phenomenal about it. He said, ‘Bryce, just keep seeing specialists. Wherever you want to go, whatever you want to do, take as much time as you need.’

“Lou, thank you,” Salvador wrote.

Salvador said that, heading into the 2011-12 season, and following a year in which he was entirely sidelined from play, most GMs would have “found a nice and professional way to politely move on without me. But Lou gave me a real chance.”

Salvador went on to play all 82 regular-season games that year and helped lead the Devils to the Stanley Cup final, appearing in 24 postseason games.

And while Salvador’s essay paints a more nuanced picture of Lamoriello’s approach as general manager, the depositions hardly portray Lamoriello and the Devils as the lone offenders in issues of compliance, either.

In Grand’s deposition, she was asked: “Has any GM ever been disciplined by the league for failure to comply with concussion protocol?” to which she responds that both Calgary and Montreal were fined, though it is not clear in the unredacted depositions why each team was fined.

An NHL spokesperson declined to comment when asked via email why both teams were fined and when. Calgary also declined to answer questions. (“We will not be making any comment relative to this subject matter based on ongoing litigation,” a team spokesperson said via email.) Montreal did not return an email seeking comment.