NHL concussion lawsuit grows to more than 200 former players

Thursday evening ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun broke the startling news that Rick Vaive, one of the leading names in the lawsuit pending against the National Hockey League over their handling of concussions, wants his name removed from the list of players associated with it.

LeBrun spoke with Vaive’s lawyer, who clarified that he has requested to remove himself from the lawsuit entirely, and there is paperwork to accomplish that process.

Mel Owens, a lawyer for the 200+ players suing the NHL over concussions, joined Nick Kypreos, Daren Millard, and Doug MacLean on Hockey Central at Noon. Owens is a workers compensation lawyer, which got MacLean’s back up right away. What resulted was a fairly interesting, if not so enlightening, conversation.

MacLean may have provided the perfect fodder for Owens. As a representative of the old school viewpoints of the NHL, he seemed completely out of touch with the reality of how players feel they have no choice but to play when injured, especially in the past.

After an initial group of just 10 former players began a lawsuit against the NHL for concussion related injuries, lawyers representing them began to reach out to former players in order to grow their numbers, and it appears that they have succeeded.

Not much more information is available yet, and no names have been given among the incredible number of new plaintiffs, but we will keep you up to date as soon as that changes.