Greg Johnson, veteran of over 750 NHL games, committed suicide.

Terrible news.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Greg Johnson, veteran of over 750 NHL games, committed suicide.
Detroit Free Press

We have some very sad news to share today, and I am sad to say that it is the kind of news that long time fans of the National Hockey League have heard before. 

In early July we learned that long time NHL player Greg Johnson had died suddenly at the young age of just 48 years old, a situation that raised many questions about the circumstances of Johnson's passing. Of course many suspected that his premature death may have been related to issues stemming from his life in professional hockey, after all this would certainly not be a unique case if that were indeed proven to be true, but that was nothing but speculation at the time. The good news now is that we no longer have to speculate about what happened to Johnson on that fateful day, the 7th of July 2019, but the sad news is that the worst fears of fans have all been confirmed. 

A Monday morning report in the Detroit Free Press has now released all the details surrounding Johnson's death, this after obtaining a copy of his autopsy report. According to the Detroit Free Press the autopsy reveals that Johnson died as the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, in other words the long time NHL veteran committed suicide. This will strike a chord with many hockey fans who have now seen far too many of their beloved former players end their own lives prematurely, due in many cases to injuries they suffered while entertaining those very same fans. 

Now to be clear there has been, at least as far as I know, nothing linking Johnson's suicide to the sport of hockey. That being said though there is clearly a pattern of this behavior from former players in the league, and you would be hard pressed to avoid suspecting that there might be a connection here. Additionally Jonhson's wife Kristen Johnson told police officers that her husband had suffered "numerous concussions during his playing career,” but that he had never shown any signs of depression.

According to a Rochester Police Report also obtained by the Detroit Free Press there was no suicide note, so there may be questions about Johnson's motivations that will never be answered. I imagine this has been difficult for his wife most of all, and my most sincere condolences go out to her and all of Johnson's loved ones who were impacted by this tragedy. 

Johnson played in 785 career games during his time in the NHL, spending time as a member of the Detroit Red wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks and the Nashville Predators before eventually retiring in 2006.

Hopefully he has found peace.

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