Mike Peluso is paying a huge price for his 458 games played in the NHL.
The 49-year-old has opened up in a piece for The Globe and Mail, describing the effects of suffering at least 10 concussions while amassing 1,951 minutes in penalties during his nine-year career.
In the piece, Peluso explains how he would be quickly rushed back onto the ice despite, in hindsight, experiencing serious head trauma that caused him to enter the wrong penalty box and showering multiple times after forgetting that he had already done so.
His worsening condition came to a head in 1994 when he suffered a seizure a few weeks after being concussed by a punch to the head.
Peluso writes:
As I convulsed, my teammates restrained me from hurting myself any further, but the damage to my brain had already been done. Incredibly, it was a team orthopedic surgeon who treated me after my seizure. I sat out for just two weeks before the team doctors again pushed me back onto the ice. I was never seen by a neurologist.
This would be the first of many seizures, and that concussion was just one of many hits to the head. At no time in my NHL career did anyone - a doctor, trainer, coach or league representative - ever tell me that I could be at risk for seizures or other long-term neurological diseases and disorders such as dementia or Alzheimer’s. I loved playing hockey, but wish someone had sat us all down to have an honest conversation about how our brains would feel years into the future.
Peluso has since suffered six more seizures and joined a concussion lawsuit filed against the NHL by several former players, with a view to holding the league accountable and helping those who, in his words, "need urgent help and care."
The role of the enforcer is becoming greatly diminished in today's NHL, with stories like Peluso's serving as a prime example of the long-term dangers of players being deployed strictly for fighting purposes.
