[Flash Walken]

This sounds like serious negligence on the part of the NHL, Anaheim Ducks and their respective medical staffs.

Despres’ fight with concussions started with a knock he took from Colorado Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie just days after signing the contract extension. The hit seemed somewhat innocuous at the time — it went without a penalty call and it took some time before it was clear what had put Despres out of the mid-October 2015 contest — but it resulted in Barrie being handed a three-game suspension. For Despres, it resulted in 42 games on the sideline.

He eventually worked his way back into the lineup, but before long, Despres again found himself on the shelf with a head injury. This time he missed six games. He was able to return to close out the season, and played the final four games of the year before suiting up in all six post-season games. He wasn’t completely healthy at the time, though.
“Well, I was sensitive to light,” Despres told the Orange County Register’s Eric Stephens before the season began. “Sensitive to noise. More emotional. I had headaches. Dizziness. Close to fainting. Stuff like that…It was a challenge. It was dangerous.”

The concern now becomes Despres’ future. He hasn’t played since opening night and he’s been out with an “upper-body” ailment since the second game of the season. At 25, he no doubt had a lot of hockey left in him, but it appears he now finds himself in a similar situation to that of Ottawa Senators winger Clarke MacArthur, having suffered multiple concussions in a short period of time.

As Murray said, though, the hope has to be not for Despres’ return to the ice, but for him to be able to live a “happy, healthy, normal life” away from the rink.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/news/ar...-from-imminent