Boston's top doctors and researchers are now tracking Claude Lemieux's case
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The timing was impossible to ignore. Claude Lemieux died on the same day Boston University confirmed yet another former NHL player had CTE.
On May 28, the Concussion and CTE Foundation announced that former Boston Bruins enforcer Lyndon Byers had been posthumously diagnosed with Stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy by researchers at BU's CTE Center.
Hours later, Lemieux was found dead at his family's furniture business in Lake Park, Florida, at the age of 60.
Boston University's top CTE researchers are now aware of Lemieux's case and are reportedly hoping to obtain as much information as possible, though nothing has been confirmed.
"The top doctors studying the effects of CTE at Boston University are aware of Claude Lemieux's death.
They hope to obtain as much information as possible about the former NHL player's case.
Nothing is confirmed yet. This is a developing story."
- Jeremy Filosa
They hope to obtain as much information as possible about the former NHL player's case.
Nothing is confirmed yet. This is a developing story."
- Jeremy Filosa
Byers became the 19th of 20 former NHL players studied at BU to receive a positive CTE diagnosis. That is a 95 percent rate that should fundamentally change how we discuss brain injuries in professional hockey.
The pattern Boston's researchers keep confirming
Dr. Ann McKee, director of BU's CTE Center, noted that Stage 3 CTE almost always involves cognitive symptoms and roughly half of those affected develop dementia.
Byers' widow Anne described watching her husband's personality deteriorate completely toward the end.
He stopped socializing and could not navigate a day alone.
Claude Lemieux played 21 NHL seasons and accumulated 1,777 regular-season penalty minutes along with another 529 in the playoffs.
His physical, aggressive style fits the exact profile Boston University researchers have studied for over a decade. The question is not whether the data is alarming because it clearly is.
Why the real question goes beyond one player
The more important question to now ask is why the NHL still lacks a comprehensive brain health program when 19 of 20 studied players have tested positive.
The league cannot keep treating these as isolated tragedies when the data says otherwise.
No official diagnosis has been made in Lemieux's case as one can only come through post-mortem brain examination authorized by his family.
But the numbers from Boston University's lab already tell a story that does not need another confirmation to be believed.
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Claude Lemieux's one dream got rejected by the Canadiens and it hits harder after his passing