NHL Player Steve Montador Secretly Donated Brain To Research

Deceased Canadian professional hockey player Steve Montador is revealed to have made one last act of kindness in the wake of his untimely death. He was 35 when he died last weekend at his home for still undisclosed reasons. University of Toronto professor Dr. Charles Tator disclosed during the memorial service for the former defenceman that Montador made the decision to donate his brain to science five years ago.

“He didn’t know when it was going to be, but when it did happen, he wanted to donate his brain,” former Calgary Flames teammate Craig Conroy told the Associated Press. “That just tells you what kind of person he was.”

His funeral which was attended by hundreds of family members, former teammates and friends was a testament to Conroy’s affirmation. The speeches and anecdotes that were told during his almost two-hour ceremony told tales of Montador’s positive influence in the sport of hockey and the attendees’ personal lives. The ceremony also ended in an emotional farewell given the unexpected nature of his passing.

Retired National Hockey League, or NHL, enforcer George Parros added that the former undrafted player was the intellectual type who was piqued on how to improve things, especially the concussion issue with hockey. Several deaths of NHL players have already been directly linked to concussions with the 2011 passing of enforcer Derek Boogaard. While the autopsy reports for Boogaard’s death said that the main cause of the death was an accidental drug overdose, the inquiry also produced that the player had a degenerative brain condition.

Mathieu Schneider, who himself has been saddled with concussion issues in his entire career shared that Montador was intrigued by effect of such concussion injuries and was a vocal leader on the subject. He shared that during his time with the latter in the NHL Players’ Association, he came to know how Montana has been concerned on the welfare of the players particularly to injuries, which no longer makes his last act of kindness surprising.

Montador suited up for 571 NHL games having various stops with the Florida Panthers, Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres and the Flames. Last Feb. 15, 2015, a friend found him unconscious in his Mississauga, Ontario home and was later pronounced dead with no suspect of foul play as of the latest report.

For concerns on this story, contact the author at v.hidalgo@ibtimes.com.au.