Hockey
Asking Price $68 Million
If the date of March 8th, 2004 rings a bell – it should cause that’s the day Bertuzzi took matters into his own hands and punched Av’s Steve Moore.
Regardless of how you saw it happen or played out, it caught everyone by surprise and shocked many involved with the game.
There was much hype about the game all due to a previous hit that Steve Moore injured Canucks Captain Markus Naslund by checking him in the head that saw Naslund suffered a minor concussion, a bone chip in his elbow as well as miss three games.
At that time of the incident Naslund was the lead scorer in the NHL and no one want’s to see any player get hit such as he did due to a reckless hit from what I call a “no name player”.
Meaning that at that time Moore was not a league superstar player and was also not a first line player for the Av’s.
Moore was asking for $68 million to cover injuries incurred, mental and physical distress, loss of income, and the impact it had on his career as a professional hockey player.
Moore incurred three fractured vertebrae in his neck, vertebral ligament damage, a severe concussion, stretching of the brachial plexus nerves, facial lacerations and amnesia.
Bertuzzi was suspended for seventeen months where he missed a total of 20 games including 7 games during the playoffs and the Canucks were fined $250,000.
After 10 long years of discussion and controversy from various sides, we are now hearing that it has been settled, but from what I am hearing there could be a problem with the settlement reached.
Geoff Adair the lawyer for Todd Bertuzzi, confirmed the settlement to The Canadian Press that the terms of settlement reached are confidential and governed by an non-disclosure agreement.
Adair did tell Sportsnet’s Michael Grange later in the same day (Monday) there is a “potential problem” with the settlement.
This had a huge long-term impact on the Canuck franchise as well as the makeup of the team and the line that everyone named the “West Coast Express.”
The makeup of this line consisted of Markus Naslund, Todd Bertuzzi and Brendan Morrison and this single incident caused this line to officially disband – albeit prematurely.
Bertuzzi was traded to the Florida Panthers after the 2005-2006 season while Naslund and Morrison left the Canucks two seasons later, with Naslund eventually retiring.
Bertuzzi is sorry for his actions and it is something he will have to live with and no one will ever know what the future would have held if this did not happen!!
This is something that we can all look back on and learn from, players, coaches and yes even the officials.
Sports is about having fun, playing hard and making friends even for the pro athlete’s.
IT’S ONLY A GAME!!!