American hockey player Adam Johnson died recently from a skate blade to the neck while playing in England. This has led to many conversations about better protective gear in the National Hockey League (NHL), and other sport leagues.

Student and freshman running back of Sultana High School, Daniel Moreno, commented on his death saying, “This is nobody’s fault but theirs  [the NHL]. They know better than to just throw some minimum gear on someone and send them out. Sending prayers to his [Johnson’s] family.” 

Johnson was a professional ice hockey forward. He joined the national hockey league in 2019 and since then, he has played thirteen games with the Pittsburgh Penguins, playing during the 2018-19 and the 2019-20 seasons. He played since 2017 however, and continued to play for these six years, playing for the Nottingham Panthers at the time of his death in England.

Thousands gathered around Monday in Hibbing, Minnesota, Johnson’s hometown, to honor the young man. “Adam was a joyful, kind human being. He had a quiet unselfishness about him, but he was a guy you wanted to be around all of the time,” said James Perunovich, who spoke for the Johnson family “He didn’t have to say much. You were a better person as a result of meeting him.”

Since Johnson’s tragic death, hundreds of thousands worldwide on the internet and in person have voiced concern for the NHL’s cut-resistant protection and are calling for improvement. 

“He was a great player,” Neal Pionk, a fellow Ice Hockey player who he knew in school said. “I’ll remember him flying around in high school with his jersey flapping behind his back. We see enough hockey players come through here that if you’re not a great guy, that part has to stay for the rest of your life. The hockey part is going to go away. We have to keep them humble. Hibbing did a great job with him. He was a great young man.”

“We’re going to explore everything,” Marty Walsh, NHL Players’ association executive director, said Wednesday. “We have to continue to have conversations on this as we move forward here. It’s a change for the players, but it’s also about protecting them, so I think we will have those conversations as we move forward here.”

The NHL responded to the death, calling it a “freak accident”. South Yorkshire Police have stated they are investigating his death and said they will report the latest news from here on out.

Fellow hockey player Matt Petgrave was arrested for the death of Johnson but was released on bail this Thursday. Future trial dates are currently unknown as of this article.

Fellow Sultana freshman David Rios commented on the whole situation saying “I hope he gets life in prison. He saw a man with weak gear and took advantage.”

Sources Taken From: People.com, APNews.com, Nypost.com, Deadline.com