I was looking through some Penguin stats and articles for upcoming Grid Polls… and with ADHD I somehow ended up on a rabbit hole of players who passed away while still an active player.

Now, as a long long time fan I knew about Briere, and his potential, and the shock to the team when he was in the accident, however this scenario is nuts….

from this article: https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/05/29/fin-tragique-dun-conte-de-fees

A SECOND VICTIM 

Friday, May 15, 1970, threw Malartic into a sadly disastrous day. A few minutes after Michel Brière's tragic accident, the ambulance taking him to Val-d'Or fatally struck an 18-year-old man – Raymond Perreault – who was riding his bicycle at the entrance to Malartic.

“He was a good friend of Michel,” says Michèle Beaudoin. 

"It's sad when you think that the newspapers and the networks have done so many articles on Michel Brière's accident, but for this poor guy, no one has talked about it," she says.

And it's not just this one…. Terry Sawchuck died after he suffered severe internal injuries during the scuffle with a teammate about living expenses from falling on top of Stewart's bent knee.

Some of these situations are just outright insane

I'm not going to keep adding, however if you want to follow this rabbit hole here is how I got distracted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ice_hockey_players_who_died_during_their_careers