One year after hockey player's death, few in the NHL wear neck guards. Here's why 2 Vancouver Canucks do.

Warning: This story contains details some readers may find disturbing.

Just over a year since professional hockey player Adam Johnson died after another player’s skate cut his neck during a game in England, adoption of neck protection among the sport’s top players remains low.

According to the National Hockey League, just 55 players are wearing neck guards this season, or 7.7 per cent of all active players.

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The NHL is one of the only hockey leagues where wearing neck protection is still optional. It’s newly required in the American Hockey League this season, and the mandate came in for Canadian major junior teams last year. Neck protection has been required for minors since the ‘90s.

But even though Canadians grow up playing with neck guards, it’s more common than not for players to ditch the garment when they make it to the top of the hockey world.

Two players on the Vancouver Canucks are bucking that trend—forward Conor Garland and defenceman Carson Soucy.

The latter played with Johnson and decided to start wearing a neck guard after the death of his former teammate.

“Adam was a teammate and a good friend, so that was kind of what got the ball rolling there,” Soucy told CTV News. The Alberta native added that he had a close call with a skate to the chest last year, and that was the final push he needed to wear extra protection.

Soucy said the key is finding the gear that works for you. “I tried one that was a little higher, a little bigger, and it just kind of bugged me a little bit. This one's nice and comfy; you barely notice it.”

Garland also told CTV News he hardly notices he’s wearing one, which is built into his under armour shirt.

“You know, I'm lower to the ice. So obviously something I have to be a little more cautious of,” said Garland, who is 5’10”.

In order for a neck guard requirement to be implemented in the NHL, an agreement would have to be made with the players’ association. Until then, it’s up to individual choice, which both Garland and Soucy said is fine.

“I don't think anyone should be concerned about what anyone wears. I'm not. I'm not in a position to tell anyone to put it on, but, you know, I feel safer with it, so I enjoy wearing it,” Garland said.

Soucy added that he predicts neck guards becoming more popular in the NHL. “As they get comfier and more accessible with more companies making them, I think it's going to keep growing.”

‘We’ve come a long way over the years’

Almost 50 years ago, Kim Crouch was in goal for the Markham Waxers when he left the crease to cover a loose puck, and two players jumped over him, one of their skates slashing him across the neck.

The goalie’s carotid artery was sliced in half and he lost about one-third of his blood. He says the only reason he’s alive to tell the story is the quick action of young trainer Joe Piccininni, who rushed to his side and covered the wound.

Crouch still calls him every Jan. 5, the anniversary of the 1975 injury. He recalls one of the surgeons who stitched him up telling him, “Well you keep calling, because if it wasn't for him, we never would have had anything to do at the hospital, because you wouldn't have made it.”

When Crouch returned to the ice weeks later, he was wearing the first-ever hockey neck guard, a prototype designed by his father.

The neck protector was basically the same as the ones seen today: ballistic nylon wrapped in polycotton for comfort, resembling a turtleneck.

His family sold the “Kim Crouch Collar” for decades, until winding down the business in 2022. Meanwhile, the gear’s namesake kept playing hockey until his early 60s, and has been a life-long advocate for the use of neck guards in the sport.

“Something good came out of a near-tragedy for me,” he told CTV News.

Crouch says that while cuts to the neck during hockey games are very rare “freak accidents,” protection is important because of how quick and devastating the consequences can be.

“I understand the resistance by some. It's just the way sports people, hockey people are, right?” he said. “When you're wearing something all your hockey career, the league shouldn't allow it to end at that point. The NHL should say, ‘OK, let's make a date to establish a compulsory mandate for wearing neck guards’…it shouldn’t be a big deal.”

He does see neck protection going the way of helmets and visors, safety equipment that eventually became mandatory for players entering the NHL after a certain year. As outlandish as it may sound, a handful of elite hockey players were skating without a helmet into the ‘90s.

But when it comes to safety in the sport, Crouch says, “we’ve come a long way over the years.”

“My dad would be extremely proud that his grandsons, now his great granddaughter, played hockey in an era when neck guards were mandatory.” Ed Crouch isn’t here to see it, but “that would have given a lot of satisfaction.”

With files from CTV News Vancouver's Shannon Paterson