When Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins captain Taylor Fedun takes off his gear after practice, the slash of a short, white scar is visible just below one of his ears.
It’s from the blade of another player’s skate.
“Two years ago, we were playing at home…against Springfield, and I got a skate to the neck,” he says, tracing the scar with his finger.
It’s been on his mind in the days since the death of former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins skater Adam Johnson. After a fatal accident on the ice, the team’s National Hockey League affiliate, the Pittsburgh Penguins, required its minor league teams start wearing neck guards.
Johnson was skating for the Nottingham Panthers of England’s Elite Ice Hockey League last month when he collided with another skater during a game and the blade of an ice skate cut his throat. Johnson died at the hospital later that day.
Johnson started his hockey career with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and went on play in the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Brian Coe, senior VP of Operations for the Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton Penguins, remembers Johnson as a hard worker from his time with the AHL team about five years ago.
“He worked his way all the way up to the NHL…he ended up scoring his first NHL goal in his home state of Minnesota,” Coe said. “It’s just the kid of guy you root for and got to see him putting in the hard work…and finally getting that chance and that opportunity.”
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach J.D. Forrest said no one on his team resisted the new safety requirements. They’ve been testing out whatever neck guards they’re able to get from Pittsburgh or elsewhere.
“It’s more like, all right, we’re going to see what works,” Forrest said. “It’s going to happen so let’s just make sure we get a feel for the different products and find what works for every different guy.”
At a recent practice, most of the team wore Skate Armor guards - a black collar that clasps at the back of the neck and hangs down enough to cover the front of the throat.
Fedun said they’re all getting used to the new gear - or, re-used to it. Most of them remember wearing neck guards when they played youth hockey.
“It’s already getting to the point where it’s starting to feel a lot more normal,” Fedun said.
The National Hockey League hasn’t required neck guards yet, but many players are adopting them on their own.
Forrest says that will set an example of safety for youth hockey players and those at any level of play.
“If you make it normal for them, it’s going to be just part of what they wear when they put their uniform on,” he said. “When they see guys at our level doing it, it makes it even easier to have them…follow their role models in that sense.”
But the hockey world’s heightened sense of safety is making it harder to get neck guards to try. As the Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton Penguins practiced, those Skate Armor guard collars were sold out online.
Coe says the league plans to honor Johnson by raising money for the “Love for Hibbing and Hockey Memorial Fund,” set up by Johnson’s family to help charities in his hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota.
