Hockey Eastern Ontario (HEO) Officiating Program recently highlighted the critical role of neck guards in hockey. They shared an incident involving a young player who narrowly avoided serious injury thanks to wearing a neck guard, which protected him from a skate blade during a game.
The significance of neck guards gained attention following the tragic death of Adam Johnson, a former NHL player, who suffered a fatal skate blade injury while playing in England. Johnson was not wearing a neck guard at the time. His death prompted the EIHL, the league he was playing in, to mandate neck guards for all players, a safety measure that several other leagues have since adopted.