The National Hockey League is expanding its in-game concussion monitoring system. Deputy commissioner Billy Daly told the Associated Press the league intends on having four concussion spotters at games, plus additional spotters who will check for symptoms and have authority to remove players from games.
[link_box id=”22277″ site_id=”17″ layout=”link-box-third” alignment=”alignright”]It’s an admirable expansion from the league. The NHL introduced concussion spotters in 2015-16. Each team had spotters but they didn’t have the right to take out players. One of my main criticisms with the system was the lack of authority and ability to identify symptoms. Daly is directly correcting those problems introducing additional spotters with that sole purpose.
”It’s a pretty major revamp from what it was last year,” Daly said Wednesday. ”We’re going to have both those (remote and on-site) spotters, plus you have the clubs’ medical staffs. We’re just building in reinforcements, really, to make the system work better.”
”Players get removed for visible signs, and that’ll be mandatory removal and that’ll be done at the league level,” Daly said.
With concussions becoming more and more of a hot-button issue every season, it’s great to see the league being proactive. Increasing the number of spotters and giving them the authority to pull concussed players from the game should lead to less players playing injured. Even if it only helps incrementally, it’s another step in the right direction.
[theScore]
