NHLPA and Marty Walsh confront CTE head-on for first time by forming advisory committee

BOSTON — For the first time, a person in a position of power at hockey’s highest level acknowledged on Friday something that leaders in other pro sports have long-since conceded: repeated blows to the head can cause the devastating disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

NHL Players’ Association executive director Marty Walsh announced the formation of the union’s first-ever CTE Advisory Committee in a room full of the world’s foremost concussion experts at the Concussion Legacy Foundation’s annual gala.

It was a massive step forward in publicly recognizing a fact that has been established for years with multiple conclusive medical studies, but one that was treated as the third rail in hockey because the NHL repeatedly railed against the science. Walsh said he learned during the NHLPA’s executive search when selected for the job in 2023 just how important of a topic this was for the players.

“I knew there was something we had to do,” Walsh said. “I think it’s important for us to really do research of our own, to create an opportunity for players to understand the full impact of CTE. You have to understand the importance and the benefits of playing professional hockey, but you also have to look at the other side of the coin – the impact it has on players’ physical well-being and their head.”

The NHLPA’s CTE Advisory Committee, which will initially be comprised of 10 active players with the goal to eventually expand to include representation from all 32 teams, will be guided by medical experts.

The formation of the committee was unanimously approved by the NHLPA executive board in June and kept under wraps until Friday. The new committee is expected to meet a few times per year and the player selected to chair the committee has not yet been announced.

“The NHLPA starting a committee is huge for the players. They need to choose their own destiny and I don’t think they’ve been getting the truth from the NHL,” said Dr. Chris Nowinski, CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation and co-founder of Boston University’s CTE Center.

“I hope they do the research and decide for themselves what risk is appropriate, how they can change the game and how they can support themselves long-term.”

In 2009, Reggie Fleming was the first former NHL player to be diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease. Fleming died at age 73 and led the entire NHL in penalty minutes in 1965-66 with 166. Symptoms in the living include behavioral problems, mood swings and cognitive issues – which get worse over time and can lead to dementia. CTE can only be diagnosed posthumously through examination of brain tissue.

Including Fleming, 12 of the 13 former NHL players who have donated their brains to the Boston Univ. brain bank with suspected CTE have been confirmed to have the disease. It’s important to point out: to date, there have been no diagnosed CTE cases that cannot be traced to repeated head impacts.

The NFL acknowledged the link between blows to the head from football and CTE in 2016. Other leagues followed. In 2019, the NHL agreed to pay $18.5 million to settle a concussion lawsuit brought by 100 former players, something that the league spent at least $70.6 million in legal fees defending. But even with that case in the rearview mirror, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has remained steadfast in denying causation, saying in 2023 that “the relationship between concussions and the asserted clinical symptoms of CTE remains unknown.”

So, even if the NHL has denied the link, why has it taken 15 years since Fleming’s diagnosis for the NHLPA counterpart to acknowledge and attack the disease?

“Look, I don’t know,” Walsh said Friday. “I wasn’t here and I can’t speak for anybody on what happened in the past. But my job as the head of the players’ union isn’t just to negotiate contracts, it’s to also be cognizant of players’ well-being – during and after their career.

“I want our players to be at the forefront of understanding the scientific breakthroughs. It’s their bodies, and we have to make sure they fully understand it.”

The NHL and NHLPA have worked jointly over the last decade or more to make the game safer and attempt to reduce hits to the head. But despite being generally aware of the risk of concussions for three decades or so, any work or research an NHL player wanted to do on CTE would have to be done on their own – until now.

“CTE is a problem that needs to be acutely addressed,” Nowinski said. “Any league that doesn’t have a CTE prevention strategy is missing a huge opportunity to protect their athletes.”

Walsh took a step forward toward doing that on Friday. Walsh said the NHLPA will tap into the medical communities in both Boston and Toronto to “be part of these conversations,” and help determine next steps. Walsh said the first part of the committee’s process is education, so don’t expect big changes or recommendations just yet.

But if the journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step, Walsh started the NHLPA on their overdue task to tackle CTE on Friday with a solemn promise.

“As of tonight,” Walsh said, “we will take this very serious.”

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NHLPA and Marty Walsh confront CTE head-on for first time by forming advisory committee

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