WARNING: Some of the details in this story may be disturbing. Discretion is advised.
An investigation has been launched after a junior hockey goalie needed medical attention following a violent on-ice incident last week.
The North Van Wolf Pack were playing the Richmond Sockeyes on Jan. 25. The teams are part of the PJHL, the Pacific Junior Hockey League.
In the third period, a fight broke out between the two sides with players from both teams involved.
“It is fight night at the fish tank,” the commentator can be heard saying.
However, tensions escalated when Richmond player Eithan Grishin put North Van goalie Evan Paul in a chokehold. After a few seconds, Paul drops to the ice, seemingly out cold.
“You see him down right now, Evan Paul,” the commentator said.
“Now the trainer’s coming out.”
The PJHL did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Global News with both teams saying they are awaiting the outcome of the investigation by the league’s department of player safety.
In a statement posted online, the North Van Wolf Pack stated that Paul was required to leave Thursday’s game due to a severe injury. The team said he is recovering at home and his injury status is day-to-day.
“I haven’t seen the footage as you have… I just say this, if people think they can go to the ice and do things that they wouldn’t be able to do in other places, they are kidding themselves, right? B.C.’s Health Minister Adrian Dix said Tuesday.
“Violence is never the answer.”
Grishin has already been suspended this year for various altercations, including attacking a referee and for fighting and slashing opponents.
Charles Popkin, an orthopedic surgeon at Columbia University in New York, is also a team physician for USA Hockey and a member of the USA’s safety and protective equipment committee for ice hockey and recently conducted a study about the role of fighting in the sport.
“There’s two very distinct camps,” he said.
“Basically the pro fighting people will say things like, ‘Well, it’s been a part of the game since forever, so it needs to stay’. They say they’re worried, like, you know, if you take away fighting that maybe fans will not show up. It’s just not going to be the same game.”
Popkin said that as a medical professional, it is hard to get behind the idea of fighting being necessary in hockey.
“I’m not saying there can’t be a fight ever again in an NHL hockey game,” he said. “I just think that the … punishment doesn’t exactly fit the crime. If we’re really looking at protecting the game long-term.”
Grishin has been suspended indefinitely and awaits final discipline from the league.
— with files from Liam Higgs