Quote:
Originally Posted by bigtmac19
I know on the Windsor news last night they interviewed a former Spitfire captain and he said there definitely was counselling available to players if they needed it. How many would take advantage though - that's a whole different question.
It might depend on the management and how they stress to players to feel free to use services like that, or maybe they don't have a good culture of understanding about it.
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Yeah, I imagine that it would be awkward for a coach or GM to go up to a player and be like; "Hey, have you thought about what you are going to do after this? Because it doesn't look like you will be making a living as a hockey player...".
But if it's just up to the player (or the player's family) to step up and request the counseling, then I can see many just not taking advantage of it as it would seem like admitting failure (not to mention the denial aspect). According to the girlfriend, he wasn't in denial... he knew his hockey career wasn't going anywhere.
Not that I am trying to simplify his depression as just "life not working out how he planned", but it sounds like it did play a roll.