The family of former NHL defenseman Steve Mondator has filed a lawsuit against the league, claiming Montador wasn’t provided with “up-to-date medical information on all issues, including the increased risk of long-term brain damage,” per TSN.
Montador, who passed away in February at the age of 35, played for six different teams over a 10-year career. He also had a brief stint in the KHL in 2013, but was forced to leave his team due to concussion problems.
The lawsuit -- filed on behalf of Mondator’s son, Morrison, and other family members -- claims that Montador had 69 fights during his NHL days, and suffered 15 documented concussion.
Back in May, Montador’s family said it planned to sue the league after an autopsy revealed he had “widespread presence of CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy] throughout his brain.”
The Canadian Sports Concussion project, which released the report on Montador’s autopsy, said he suffered from “depression, erratic behavior and problems with his memory” prior to passing away.
Lawyer Bill Gibbs is representing Montador’s family. Gibbs also represents the family of former NHL enforcer Derek Boogaard, who died in 2011 due to an overdose of alcohol and painkillers.
Like Montador, researchers found signs of CTE in Boogaard’s brain after his death.
NHL dep commissioner Bill Daly has no comment on the Steve Montador lawsuit. "We will stand by our previous comments on the same substance."
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) December 8, 2015
Related: Carcillo talks Montador’s ‘trying times,’ questions NHLPA’s exit program