Chicago Tribune: The family of a veteran National Hockey League player has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in Chicago, alleging the league was responsible for his being supplied with excessive amounts of painkillers during six seasons as an “enforcer.”
The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, said Derek Boogaard died at 28 of an accidental drug overdose two years ago in Minneapolis after a battle with addiction to painkillers prescribed by a team of NHL doctors.
A postmortem examination found that Boogaard had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a progressive brain disease caused by head trauma, according to the suit.
Boogaard was drafted in 2001 by the Minnesota Wild and played for the New York Rangers at the time of his death. At 6-foot-7 and about 270 pounds, he was an enforcer who took part in at least 66 on-ice fights while playing in about 275 regular-season games, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleged that Boogaard was given more than 1,000 pills by NHL team doctors and dentists during the 2008-09 season. At the end of that season he was prescribed 150 pills of oxycodone over a two-week period and eventually was taking up to 10 oxycodone pills a day, the suit said.
“The NHL drafted Derek Boogaard because it wanted his massive body to fight in order to enhance ratings, earnings and exposure. Fighting night after night took its expected toll on Derek’s body and mind,” attorney William T. Gibbs of the Chicago personal injury law firm of Corboy & Demetrio said in a statement.
“To deal with the pain, he turned to the team doctors who dispensed pain pills like candy…”
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