National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman says there is not enough data yet to draw conclusions about the link between concussions and a degenerative brain ailment that has been found in four dead ice hockey players.
The league wrapped up its Board of Governors meetings in California on Tuesday, a day after The New York Times reported that former New York Rangers enforcer Derek Boogaard suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, an ailment related to Alzheimer’s disease.
The 28-year-old Boogaard, who died in May of an accidental overdose of alcohol and oxycodone, was found to have had CTE — which can be diagnosed only after the death of the patient. Boogaard is the fourth former NHL player found to have CTE by Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy.
“They’re still looking at a very limited database,” Bettman said. “There’s no control element because you have to look at everything that went on in a person’s life before you can make a judgment as to what a brain may show when you open it up. … There are no easy answers yet. I think it’s unfortunate that people use tragedies to jump to conclusions that probably at this stage aren’t supported.”
Boogaard scored
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