Concussion Rates, Player Health Improving Across NHL

Across the world of professional sports — with hockey being no exception — player health has become one of the most important topics of conversations surrounding player safety.

When it comes to head health and decreasing concussions in particular, that topic seems to swirl above the rest. Repeated concussions and blows to the head often increase the risk of long-term neurological issues including but not limited to memory decline, cognitive impairment and emotional decline. In the sport of hockey and in the NHL, while there are helmets, it’s common for them to be knocked off due to force in the midst of fighting. With those risks present, it’s clear both fans and certain players alike still have a strong passion for the physicality of the sport and find it key to the game itself.

Daniel Carcillo is a retired NHL enforcer who played in the NHL for nine years and won the Stanley Cup twice. Known as “Car Bomb” during his heyday, Carcillo participated in 164 fights and had seven diagnosed concussions. He thus retired in 2015 at only the age of 30 and following the birth of his son.

“I started to see changes in myself, because I got my sixth concussion, and then my seventh in my last year in 2015. I couldn’t look at my phone for a month. I couldn’t look at any screens,” Carcillo said on his experience of head trauma in an exclusive. “It was really difficult for my brain to kind of come back and regenerate. And it really never did. And so I never played again.”

After winning the Stanley Cup as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013 and 2015, the league alum used his experiences from over 400 games played to advocate for the bettering of mental health.

Carcillo currently serves as a public speaker and advocate on behalf of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) survivors and other mental health challenges. He also founded the wellness community of "Experience Onward" which offers natural medicine experiences and psilocybin therapy.

"I made a decision to use the NHL as an example to try to educate other people about the risks of these head traumas,” Carcillo also said. “It's a pretty cool thing to kind of get to a point in your life where you're grateful for all of your suffering and to be able to hopefully help another concussion survivor, because it's a long and lonely road.”

The retired enforcer also recognized that over the past 10 years, a lot of information made available on the risks of concussions and available medicine has changed.

Medical Perspective

And it’s true. Over the past few decades, modern medicine has seen a lot of advancement across the world of athletics and especially within the world of hockey.

According to a public dataset acquired by Breakaway On SI from the National Library of Medicine, the number of concussions reported per season in the NHL has trended downward. To be more specific, the dataset cites that the incidence of concussions reported by the league in the regular season ranged from a high of 1.81/1000 athlete exposures in 1998-99, which then dropped to a low of 1.04/1000 athlete exposures in 2005-06.

The dataset was compiled by Richard Wennberg and Charles Tator — two Canadian neurologists — who also indicated the possibility that injury reduction efforts across the league could be responsible for the downward trend in specific regard to the rate of concussions.

In addition, two different high-level physicians currently working within the sport of hockey further confirmed to On SI that the advancement of modern medicine has led to positive developments surrounding concussions rates and identification throughout the NHL.

Allison Beazley is in her fourth season as the athletic trainer for the Peoria Rivermen, a semi-professional hockey team where current-longtime NHL enforcer Ryan Reaves previously played for four seasons.

She said that her working relationship with the players that she tends to and helping them with head-health are two of the most important aspects of her job.

“My job is to make sure that their brain is as healthy as can be at the end of their careers,” Beazley said. “I want to make sure they have that brain function and everything. They need to not be dealing with post concussion syndrome … [My relationship with the athletes] plays a huge role in the job, because ultimately if they don’t trust you, they’re not going to come to you.”

A Texas State University graduate with a BA in Athletic Training, Beazley previously served as an assistant athletic trainer with the Allen Americans of the ECHL before joining the Rivermen’s staff.

Beazley also said that some commonly utilized concussion assessment tools across the sport include the imPACT Concussion Test in addition to Sway Medical Concussion Baseline Testing, as more awareness surrounding the long-term effects of concussions have come about.

“Head injuries, you can’t really see,” Beazley said. “Luckily, there’s more and more awareness coming about with concussions and the importance of telling someone, maybe after a big hit, ‘my head’s starting to hurt really bad.’ It's just important to take precaution.”

AHL Perspective - Goaltender Ryan Fanti, Syracuse Crunch

In the sport of hockey, goaltenders are provided a unique opportunity in that they get to witness what goes on across the entire rink while still playing in the game themselves. Every netminder has a unique style of play, with the occasional goalie being more physical than others.

While a rarity, goalie fights are oftentimes described as a must-see event for every hockey fan, at least once in their lives.

Ryan Fanti — who plays for the Syracuse Crunch, the AHL affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning — is an active professional goaltender who has not only participated in a goalie fight, but dominated the entire thing.

For Fanti, his fight during his first year in the East Coast Hockey League with the Fort Wayne comments was a bucket list item he was proud to check off his list.

“I always wanted to get in a fight as a goalie,” Fanti said. “I feel like that was kind of just a bucket list thing, and I feel like it is for a lot of guys. It's by no means something that I want to do every night or every year … but it kind of was one of those holy crap moments where it was like, ‘oh my god, this is happening.’ I was just happy I kept all my teeth and it went kind of in my favor.”

While not outright across the leagues, more physical goaltenders are becoming more and more common. Fans of the NHL see this with New York Rangers’ goaltender Jonathan Quick, with Fanti clearly being another example of that at the minor league level.

Another really apparent commonplace in the sport of hockey is how crucial it is for goaltenders to be protected.

Fanti said that being a goaltender is tougher than most people recognize, and that it only raises his respect for players who put their bodies on the line to protect players like him.

“As a goalie, you don't really get involved in stuff unless something really calls for it. I try and stay in my own lane, I feel like our job is as tough as it is on its own,” Fanti said. “I have a lot of respect for how many guys are willing to go and put themselves on the line for their teammates and their whole team each and every night … Just those guys having my back whenever stuff happens and always standing up for me in that sense to maybe make it a little bit easier on me, to give me a little bit more space to make my job a little bit easier [goes a long way.]”

2025-26 marks Fanti’s fourth pro season. In the year prior, he posted a 3-1-0 record with a 1.45 goals-against average and a .946 save percentage in seven appearances (four starts) for the Syracuse Crunch.

Additionally, Fanti agreed that as someone who has played hockey his entire life, there has been a huge growth in injury awareness and how the players are tended to by medical staffers.

“As the years have gone on and how much more intelligent we are nowadays in terms of injuries, how to rehab [them] and how to go about prevention things like that, we’re super fortunate. Our athletic training staff makes our lives a lot easier in terms of just being able to show up and do what we need to do, and not have to think about that other stuff, because they're right there as resources.”

NHL Perspective - Enforcer Ryan Reaves, San Jose Sharks

As previously referenced, the number of concussions reported per season in the NHL has trended downward. In addition, a better awareness of the risks related to concussions seems to be all the more present across players, coaches, staffers and medical officials alike.

For players like the aforementioned Reaves — who has been playing in the league since the 2010-11 season — this in general in addition to concussion checks have made a great difference in his career.

“Head injuries are, especially as of late, have been taken a lot more seriously,” Reaves said. “Back in the day, I think you could get knocked out, you'd be back on the ice if you even had to leave the ice. But now I think you have to go through the protocol. You have to make sure 100% that you're good to go. And I think it's important. You don't want to mess with your head. That's long term health that could affect you. So it’s good to know they're taking it seriously."

Lovingly referred to by many as "Reavo," it is a fact that Reaves is widely recognized for his offensive physical game and on-ice fights. Since joining the San Jose Sharks’ locker room in July of 2025, he’s also been in a role where he has to protect a lot of younger players.

The Sharks have former No. 1 overall pick Macklin Celebrini, only 19, in addition to four others on their roster that were born in or following the year 2003.

As one of the toughest players in the NHL, Ryan Reaves of the @SanJoseSharks has the unique opportunity as an enforcer to protect a roster loaded with young talent.

Here’s what he had to say on what it’s like to protect those guys👇🤳🏼#TheFutureIsTeal | #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/3SGzcIPwfk
— Jennifer Streeter (@JennyStreeter3) January 10, 2026

Reaves, 38, has a career total of 140 points (66 goals, 74 assists) across 950 games played.

The right wing said that as more information has become available, it will only mean better things for the NHL in the long-run.

“As more research has come out, the importance of head injuries has gotten a little bit larger. I think it’s good that these young guys are going to be taken care of … You want to take care of your players. You want to make sure that they’re healthy, they can have a long career and they can have a healthy life when they’re done with their [playing] career.”

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