29-year-old ex-NHLer dies after being struck in the neck by a skate blade

It's an absolute worst nightmare scenario - a player skating up quickly to join the play only to take a razor-sharp skate blade to the neck - and just like that, a life is over far too soon.

Last night, during a game in England, that's exactly what happened as former NHLer Adam Johnson was struck in the neck by a skate blade as he entered the offensive zone, just inside of the blueline. You could tell that Johnson was in immediate distress, clutching at his throat and actually rising to his feet and skating off under his own power as the blood poured from the open wound. Absolutely horrifying.

The Nottingham Panthers and Pittsburgh Penguins both issued statements on Sunday, following Johnson's tragic passing.





Skate lacerations have become increasingly common and they're always scary. In recent years, we have seen a number of wrist and face lacerations as a result of being clipped by an errant skate blade. We have also seen a number of players over the years who took a skate blade to the neck and survive, such as Clint Malarchuk and Richard Zednik. Johnson, 29, was not so lucky.

Johnson, an undrafted forward, skated in 13 games as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins and spent the majority of his professional career with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, spending short stints with the Ontario Reign and Lehigh Valley Phantoms before taking his talents to Europe in 2022-23.

Our deepest and most sincere condolences to Adam's family, friends, teammates and thoughts and prayers to anyone who knew him or anyone who was in the arena who witnessed this tragic and horrific incident.

There is a video of the freak accident available, but for obvious reasons, I'm not going to imbed the clip. Instead, there's a hyperlink below that will direct you to the video, but I will caution you that it is extremely graphic and to proceed at your own discretion.

For those who wish to see the clip of the horrific accident, you can do so here.