Ice Hockey Players Who Died on the Ice

Ice hockey players who died on the ice might be a bit of hyperbole. Players don’t often die on the ice. But all the players discussed on this morbid list either passed away on the ice or died as a direct result of the injuries sustained there.

Ice Hockey Players Who Died On The Ice:

Get your holy water out. We need to cleanse these arenas. These players died directly on-site.

Viktor Blinov

Viktor Blinov was a defenseman who played for the Soviet Hockey League and won a gold medal in the 1968 Winter Olympics.

The Soviet thing likely tipped you off that this happened a while ago. Blinov was born in 1945 and passed away in 1968 at age 22.

Viktor played for a professional hockey team in now Russia called HC Spartak Moscow.

The young man would pass away from what sounds like an incidence of sudden cardiac arrest, passing away on the ice during a practice.

According to Dr. Muhammad Aftab, a heart surgeon, roughly one in 50,000 to one in 80,000 young athletes will die each year of sudden cardiac arrest. The event is the leading cause of death among healthy young athletes and accounts for roughly 75% of sports- and exercise-related deaths.

Damar Hamlin is a recent example of someone who experienced sudden cardiac arrest.

There is a high survival rate when people who are trained and certified are able to reach the athlete quickly, but in 1968, CPR hadn’t even been around for a whole decade, so unfortunately, Viktor Blinov did not receive the medical care that would have saved his life.

Alcide Laurin

Alcide Laurin‘s story is tragic and almost unbelievable. Things must have been quite a bit different back in the beginning of the 20th century when it came to hockey. Laurin was a player for an Ontario-based team, the Alexandria Crescents.

The 24-year-old was the first player to die during a game, being pronounced dead on the ice itself in 1905.

A rivalry between the Crescents and their opponents was spicy due to religious differences (because that makes sense?). One was Catholic, and one was Protestant. Allan Loney took things a little too far when he killed Laurin after mauling him with his hockey stick. Alcide took one blow to the chin and another to the left temple.

Loney was known for being violent, something that seems difficult in 1905 hockey, and was initially charged with murder. This was later changed to manslaughter. Ultimately, the case was dismissed when it was found that Allan Loney’s attack could be attributed to instinct or self-defense.

Players Who Died Due to Injury On The Ice:

We’re not talking about the players who died because of the long-term negative impacts of playing ice hockey (like CTE or an infection from a knee replacement). This is an injury that happened on the ice, and the player passed away as a direct result.

Bengt Åkerblom

Bengt Åkerblom‘s story is likely one of the most vicious accidental injuries on the ice.

Åkerblom was born in Sweden in 1967 and passed away in 1995 in Sweden at 28 years old.

The young man was a center in a Swedish professional league. For someone who finds reading the labels at Ikea, that is as specific as we will be getting on the league itself. Things get confusing fast.

Åkerblom was a player on Mora IK, a Swedish ice hockey club, at the time of his death. Mora was playing for Brynäs IF, another hockey club, in October 1995.

In what sounds like the dark plot of a scary movie, Bengt died after his carotid artery was sliced open by a skate blade.

An arterial bleed is one of the most intense injuries. An individual can bleed out as soon as two minutes, although the average is usually between two and five minutes.

Åkerblom did make it to the hospital but died during surgery.

Neck guards are now mandatory for Swedish ice hockey players.

Luděk Čajka

The Czechoslovakian player played for the country’s league on the HC Zlin team. The young man was drafted in 1987 by the NHL but never played for the league. The defenseman also represented his country in the 1987 World Ice Hockey Championship, getting a bronze medal.

The 26-year-old tragically died after colliding with another player and being checked into the boards in an icing situation. Spinal injuries left Luděk Čajka paralyzed, and he passed away just over a month later in the hospital while he was in a coma.

Čajka’s death helped inspire the “no-touch” icing rule.

Alexei Cherepanov

Cherepanov passed away at the incredibly young age of 19. The ball was dropped multiple times by multiple leagues, and the medical staff at the game he passed away at. A completely tragic end for the young man.

The KHL player was described by the coach of the Avangard Omsk team, Wayne Fleming, as seeing the right wing lay back, passing out, and going white on the bench. Jaromir Jagr remembers how tragic it was to see his teammate die in front of him. The player recalls Alexei being awkwardly carried to an office by teammates, a doctor, and club officials.

Despite the player’s condition, the game went on. The players didn’t fully understand the seriousness of the situation at the time. When they found out just how bad things were, teammates drove quickly to a nearby coach and prayed for the young man.

The Controversy

Controversy swirled around Cherepanov’s death. Most notably, the ambulance at the game had already left since it was the tail end of the game. The defibrillator at the arena was out of order. It’s hard to know if either would have helped, but Alexei certainly deserved the opportunity to find out. He was alive when he arrived at the hospital, but he passed away shortly thereafter.

The identification of the cause of death was far more eventful than it should have been. We know it had to do with Cherepanov’s ticker, but not specifically what was wrong with it. Heart failure ended up being the final explanation, although that is hotly debated.

What do we know didn’t happen? Jagr wanted to clear the air on the rumors that an on-ice collision involving him and Alexei was a complete lie that was manufactured by the media (the claims never really made sense from the start).

“Reports” also indicated that Cherepanov was “blood doping,” although the things they found in his blood stream were actually attributed to the life-saving measures the team officials and doctors had attempted.

Medical Details

It was initially proposed that Alexei Cherepanov had chronic myocardial ischemia (blood flow blocked by arterial blockages), then myocarditis (inflammation of the heart), and then a hypertrophic heart (the main pumping chamber of the heart is stiff and thick).

It’s not clear which underlying heart condition Cherepanov had. The KHL didn’t catch it in physicals, and neither did the NHL when he was examined for entry into the draft in 2007. Allegedly, he was receiving treatment from a doctor not affiliated with the team. It’s unclear who that was.

Someone dropped the ball; it’s not clear who, and Alexi Cherepanov had to pay the ultimate price for incompetence on multiple levels.

Edgar Dey

Edgar Dey lived a lot of life in his short 28 years. He came from a family of esteemed canoe builders and was a canoeing champion in Canada. Dey played in many different professional leagues, including playing in a Stanley Cup championship in 1909. Edgar was alive pre-NHL.

In 1912, he moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to play for the Halifax Socials, a team in the Maritime Professional Football League.

Dey had his day in court after being arrested for assault on an opponent after he struck the man with his hockey stick. Not so social. Edgar got a $200 bail and was ultimately fined $50 for his violence.

The right wing was hit in the chest during a game in New Glasgow. He noticed he had lingering pain in his chest area and went to a hospital in Halifax, where he had several chest surgeries. He succumbed to his injuries. There were no further details on what his specific injuries and surgeries were.

Timur Faizutdinov

Timur recently passed away in Yaroslavl, Russia, in 2021, at age 19. The captain of the HC Dinamo Saint Petersburg team was competing in the Kharlamov Cup against Lokomotiv Yardoslavl.

The defenseman was hit by a puck in the carotid artery. As discussed with Bengt Åkerblom’s carotid artery bleed as a result of taking a skate to the artery, the bleed out can be quick.

However, Faizutdinov did make it to the hospital and survived for four days, but ultimately could not recover from the injury.

Archie Hooper

In another puck-related incident, Archie Hooper was struck in the head by one. 23-year-old Archie was a captain for a Canadian amateur league team, the Montreal HC, in 1904 when he died.

In a bizarre turn of events, Hooper did not die until nearly 8 months after the initial injury. He was hospitalized in July after things didn’t get better, and he was kept for an undisclosed period of time. He later died in October of that same year.

Adam Johnson

Adam Johnson is an American-born ice hockey player who played for the NHL for a short time before heading to Europe to get on the ice. He died as a Nottingham Panther of the Elite Ice Hockey League at 29 years old.

The center passed away yesterday, October 28th, 2023. Johnson’s neck was cut by a skate during an on-ice collision. Adam attempted to skate back to the bench and collapsed on the ice. A protective ring was formed around Adam Johnson by players on both teams locking arms.

Medical professionals did preliminary medical care on Adam on the ice before screens were put up and the arena was evacuated. He was transported to a local hospital and officially pronounced dead there.

Our hearts, as all ice hockey fans hearts, are with the Johnson family.

Alexander Krevsun

Technically speaking, Alexander Krevsun‘s death wasn’t the direct result of something that happened on the ice. But it was during a team practice that included a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) cross-country run. They do things differently in Russia.

Krevsun played in America for three seasons in three different leagues, including the NHL in 1999. Returning to Russia in 2002 and signing with a team in what was described as a “second-tier” hockey league.

The 22-year-old was found healthy in a physical just two days prior. The young man collapsed mid-run and died two hours later in a hospital of a brain hemorrhage. He left behind a wife and a child at the time of his death.

Rauli Levonen

The available details on Rauli Levonen are… concise. The young man was a Finnish player who played for the Pori Aus team his entire career, winning the Finnish Championship in 1978.

The 28-year-old died in 1981 after having a heart attack during the game. He was experiencing chest pains and was rushed to the hospital, where he died.

Bill Masterton

Bill Masterton‘s name may be familiar to you if you are an NHL history buff. Masterton is the first NHL player to have a death attributed directly to an injury that happened on the ice. His death has also been attributed to the emphasis on playing helmets, although they didn’t make them mandatory until over a decade later. Way to honor Masterton.

The ice hockey player was the first individual to sign with the NHL expansion team, the Minnesota North Stars, in 1967. Bill actually scored the first goal in Minnesota’s franchise history. He would pass away a North Star in 1968 at 29.

Masterton was just passing the puck when two defenders hit him at the same time. Which apparently was not a dirty hit even though it sounds like a human clothesline. It’s worth pointing out that the men were contrite and didn’t have ill intentions. Bill went backwards after getting hit and knocked his head really hard on the ice.

He was knocked out on the ice and was bleeding from his nose, ears, and mouth. Masterton came to once, muttering “never again, never again,” and passed back out, never to wake up again. He was given medical assistance on the ice and in the dressing room before being rushed to the hospital.

Two neurosurgeons and three doctors determined that the injury was too bad for surgery to be an option. Not that neurosurgery in the 1960s sounded like an appealing option anyway. He would die 30 hours after the hit.

Owen McCourt

Owen McCourt‘s death also had a murder trial associated with it. His case is thought to be the second death that resulted in a murder trial in ice hockey history after Alcine Laurin.

McCourt played with the Cornwall Hockey Club of the Federal Amateur Hockey League from 1903 to his death in 1907 at age 22.

In a brawl that makes 1990s NHL games look tame, one or two individuals reigned hockey stick blocks all over Owen’s head. He got knocked out on the ice and died the next morning.

The person most people associated with the blows was Mr. Charles Masson, who was arraigned on a manslaughter charge because several witnesses attested to the fact that another unknown individual had also hit McCourt.

Boris Sádecký

Boris Sádecký was an ice hockey player for the Bratislava Capitals in a Central European hockey league, which is the top-tier league in Austria.

At just 24, Boris collapsed on the ice and was rushed to the hospital, where he died four days later, just two years ago. The family recalls that he was experiencing what he thought was heartburn the day of the game.

An autopsy revealed that Sádecký had myocarditis (inflammation of the heart), which could have led to cardiac arrest during the game.

Donald Summerville

The Mayor of Toronto, Donald Summerville, passed away in a charity hockey game of all things when he was just 48 of a heart attack.

In one of our worst cases of medical negligence on this list, the ambulance took over 15 minutes to reach the mayor, clinging to life. He would pass away just 10 minutes later at the hospital.

Why did it take so long for help to arrive? The short answer is that… it didn’t. The fire department arrived in three minutes. An ambulance was closer to the rink but was not allowed to come due to not having jurisdiction over where the ice hockey arena was. As a result, an ambulance had to be called out from much further away.

What a medical mess.

Alan Thicke

In the name of completeness, Robin Thicke’s dad’s death will be documented in this list. In 2016, the 69-year-old collapsed while playing hockey with his son, Carter, at an arena in California.

Alan Thicke was actually joking with his son, suggesting Carter take a photo of his dad being wheeled away in a stretcher out of the arena.

Thicke would die later that day in the hospital of an aortic dissection. This is a fairly rare cardiac event. The large blood vessel branching off the heart being injured allows blood to force the aortic wall layers apart. The blood pressure quickly decreases, with the heart receiving an insufficient amount of blood.

This is typically not a pleasant experience, and it’s admirable that Alan attempted to present such a positive attitude when speaking with his son. What a tough scenario for the family.

Dimitri Uchaykin

In another stick-related injury, Dimitri Uchaykin passed away at 32 in Kazakhstan. He was playing for the Irtysh Pavlodar team in the playoff match of the Kazakhstan Ice Hockey Championship in 2013.

The forward took a strong blow to the neck with an opponent’s stick. In a questionable amount of medical wisdom, Uchaykin went home and stayed there despite experiencing symptoms. He fell into a coma that night and was rushed to the hospital, where he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in the middle of the night.

His wife was pregnant at the time, and they had one daughter already when the ice hockey player passed away.

Sergei Zholtok

Sergei Zholtok was a Latvian player who spent the majority of his career in the NHL, playing for 10 seasons. During the 2004–2005 NHL lockout, Sergei returned to Latvia to play for the Riga 2000 team.

Zholtok had documented cardiac arrythmia. This condition is typically quite dangerous, but depending on the severity, there can be a pretty mild impact on an individual’s health. It’s not clear how severe Sergei’s case was.

In 2003, Sergei had to leave a game due to the arrythmia, was observed overnight in the hospital, and was allowed to return to play seven games later. Things wouldn’t go so well the following year. In 2004, Zholtok left a game with five minutes remaining and collapsed and died in the arms of his teammate in the dressing room, Darby Hendrickson. Now that’s a good friend, how hard.

An autopsy revealed that Sergei died of heart failure. The 31-year-old left behind a wife and two children. It feels like this could have been an avoidable casualty. Truly unfortunate. 

Conclusion

Keep your family and friends close and the ice hockey players in your life closer. It can get lethal out there. The length of this list is far scarier than Hallows Eve.

Want to read more sports-related lists? Check out my articles here. Did I forget someone I should have included? Let me know in the comments section!