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NHLPA will form new CTE committee, union president announces

Posted on by Pranco
NHLPA will form new CTE committee, union president announces

Marty Walsh, executive director of the NHL Players Association, made the announcement a new CTE advisory committee at an event Friday in Boston.

The committee will look at chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, and the damage concussions can have on the brain.

“The long-term health of NHL players is of the utmost importance to our membership,” the union said in a statement. “To that end, the NHLPA is in the process of forming a players committee that will focus on learning more about chronic traumatic encephalopathy). The committee will be guided by leading medical experts in the field to help players better understand CTE.”

In the crowd, during an event in the Concussion Legacy Foundationwere the families of 12 NHL players who were later diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease CTE.

“The fact that the NHL Players’ Association is starting a CTE committee is huge for every player in the hockey community,” said Chris Nowinski, co-founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation.

The brain disease can now only be found after death.

It has been found in some people who have had a history of repetitive brain trauma, experts said.

Patients can experience mood, behavioral and memory problems.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reported on a concussion lawsuit by former NHL players in 2017, in which more than 100 former players — including 17 Minnesotans — sued the league.

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The league ultimately settled the lawsuit.

“We are getting very close to diagnosing it in living people,” Nowinski said.

That step could help with detection and prevention, Nowinski added.

Meanwhile, Nowinski thinks the NHLPA move could lead to possible changes in the game.

“I think it’s an urgent call to action to continue to try to find safer ways to play contact and collision sports,” Nowinski said.

In 2016, an NFL official told Congress There is a link between CTE and football-related head injuries.

The NFL has settled a billion-dollar concussion lawsuit with former players and families.

The NHL hasn’t come out as decisively on CTE.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.