Poddubny

by James Mirtle on Mar 23, 2009 1:02 PM CDT in Obituaries Comment 3 comments

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If you read just one hockey story today, it should be Al Maki's on former NHLer Walt Poddubny.

Poddubny died on Saturday, and the initial reports read like so:

Poddubny had been living in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and a source close to the family told the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal the 49-year-old collapsed on Saturday morning. The cause of death is unknown.

Poddubny had stints with the Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Quebec Nordiques and New Jersey Devils over his 11 NHL seasons. He had 422 points (184 goals, 238 assists) in 468 career NHL games.

The full story's much more complicated. I'm not sure if we even know exactly what it is quite yet, but it's a sad one.

It makes me wonder how many more Poddubnys there are out there.

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Too Common probably

1) He couldn’t afford surgery? Isn’t there universal health care up north? Yeah, there has to be more to this story than we know so far. Sad nonetheless.

2) Undoubtedly there are probably hundreds of Walt Poddubnys out there! There is no reason in this day and age that vets should be living like this. What’s the deal with the players pension?

by Fauxrumors on Mar 23, 2009 2:28 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

The sad ending of a retired journeyman hockey player likely only peripherally had anything to do with his financial situation. More likely, it was his mental health that is the key factor here.
And, sadly, there are likely hundreds of cases out there that we never hear about, because of the taboo of discussing mental illness and athletes — as though they’re supposed to be immune, or something.
Walt Poddubny is not the first athlete, who, ‘’once the calliope stops’’ is unable to find his footing. But don’t blame the cost of any surgery or the NHLPA’s pension for his problem.
Blame the silence of the mental-health closet.

by Phillie on Mar 23, 2009 5:24 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

If anything, ex-athletes are more prone to depression. As a general rule, they devote themselves entirely to a career that, at best, is over by the time they’re 40. That’s a lot of years to fill with something new. It’s probably worse, because people in most lines of work are considered a huge success if they are one of the top 1,000 people in the world at what they do. In professional sports, that means you didn’t make The Show, and are usually considered to be a bust.

by J. Michael Neal on Mar 23, 2009 10:40 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs