Nick Kypreos

Nick Kypreos is a Stanley Cup champion and Hockeycentral analyst

Whether it's hockey or MMA, cold hard cash is what’s keeping athletes at risk of major head injury.

From the world junior tournament in Saskatchewan, to the Bauer Challenge Cup in Mississauga featuring top peewee players in North America, what is usually a great time of the year for many hockey families is anything but for the Sanderson family of Whitby, Ont.

This past weekend marked the first anniversary of Don Sanderson’s death -- the result of a hockey fight -- and it was an eerie reminder of how much hockey players continue to risk on a nightly basis.

Selfishly, it’s also a reminder of how easily that could have been me during my last pro game in 1997. I suffered a head injury during a fight that ended my NHL career. As a father of three kids who all lace up skates on a weekly basis, I truly feel for the Sanderson family and what they continue to live with. Losing a child is something no parent should ever have to experience.

I also know my on-air persona doesn’t always reflect that I have enough empathy for victims like the Sandersons, or even the recently concussed David Booth of the Florida Panthers, but I do. People say to me: "Of all people on TV, you should be the one to talk on air about trying to stop concussions from happening." And for that I say, even if I tried, the powers that be wouldn’t listen.

I really don’t mean to come across as cold and callous when it comes to violent and dangerous plays during a game, but I also know to truly make an impactful effect, you’re talking about changing the fabric of a 100-year-old game. And from where I’m sitting and observing, the housekeepers are not about to let that happen just yet.

It was reported that the Sanderson family is frustrated with the lack of action to address the issues that lead to the death of their son, and that's certainly understandable. The OHL made some adjustments, but as far as the NHL is concerned nothing significant has changed. Don's father told the Toronto Star: "If it had happened to an NHL player who died, it would have been met with a bigger voice."

Sad to say, I don’t believe that to be true. We’ve seen tragedies in sports such as boxing, auto racing and horse racing, and rightly or wrongly, little has changed in those.

Ironically, while some continue to push for a safer environment in which no contact to the head is allowed in hockey, a sport such as mixed martial arts continues to be going in the opposite direction and it’s the fastest growing pro sport in North America. Unlike our hockey world, blows to the head are glorified in MMA. Of note, not one death in MMA is on record as of today, yet the question remains if there was, would the MMA even blink?

Ontario is still one of the last places to have a ban on MMA fighting, but the truth is politicians are watching millions of dollars disappear to other markets so eventually, cold hard cash will prevail. And when MMA does finally come to Ontario, the suits will speak of the money it will generate for the economy, but they won’t say that it might come on the back of some guy who dies after a bone-on-bone kick to the temple.

On Hockeycentral@noon, my co-host, Daren Millard, often says I have such a primitive attitude toward hockey that he confuses me with the Geico caveman. But the truth is most paying customers do like it that way. And the NHL’s head office knows that. It’s not the image of the game the league fears from making radical changes such as eliminating fighting, it’s messing with a $2.7-billion industry that worries them the most.