Friedman on concern over Skinner's concussions

Elliotte Friedman was on Sportsnet 960 Friday morning.

On Jeff Skinner’s concussion history:

“The thing about Skinner is that when he got hurt this year, it wasn’t the most brutal collision.

“I know his family a little bit. I’ve talked to his father several times and I sent him a note when the concussion happened and I said, ‘I just hope you and your family are doing okay.’ And he sent me a quick note back. But I didn’t really get into ‘What does this mean, what’s the future.’

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“He’s been back for two games now. He played in Winnipeg. He played in Calgary last night. And I think the thing is that’s good he escaped – he came out of both games relatively unscathed.

“But I do know that there is talk about how many more of these things he can really go through. And at some point I do plan to broach it with him and the family, but I’m just waiting for the right time because when the boy is going through it, you don’t really want to bother them as much.”

Right. Interesting you say ‘boy’ because I think we forget, he came right in at 18. He’s still incredibly young.

“Yeah, he was. I mean, he was a star right away. I was more looking at it from the parents’ perspective.

“You know Dean, we’re both dads now. I’ve got a three-year-old and I try to imagine if that was my son going through that, and how I’d feel and what my emotions would be. So I guess I just used the term ‘boy’ because it’s Mr. Skinner’s boy, I guess is the way to put it.”

Source: Sportsnet 960/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey