Steve Montador - Jamie Sabau/Getty Images
Montador, who was 35 when he died in Mississauga, Ont., on Feb. 15, 2015, signed with Calgary in 2000 as an undrafted free agent after playing in the Ontario Hockey League with North Bay, Erie and Peterborough. “The NHL, armed with vastly superior managerial, medical, legal, and other resources to gather, analyze, and understand sub-concussion, concussion and head injury data, failed to keep Steven Montador reasonably safe during his career and misled him on the permanent ramifications of brain trauma,” the lawsuit says.
The NHL wrote that Montador was active in NHL and NHL Players’ Association matters throughout his career, serving on the NHL/NHLPA competition committee and as a member of the NHLPA’s 2012 collective bargaining committee, including in sessions devoted to issues of player health/safety. Even though Pieroth explained the science regarding multiple concussions to Montador, he told her that he was comfortable with assuming the risk associated with playing in the NHL, the league wrote.