I agree that the NHL should have a way to help these guys when their playing days are over. I mean, they gave their all for their teams. It would be a very small cost to them overall, I'm sure.
I don't excuse the medical profession for medicating these guys to the point of addiction and giving them clean bills of health to play, however. That's the true crime here, especially because the NHL can just say that the experts told them it was all ok. They take a hothead young guy who fights for a living and medicate him to the point of no return so he can keep sliding out on the ice day in day out, concussion or no.
What he needed was help learning to save, invest and think about when his knuckles will no longer punch his ticket.
These guys are also complicit in playing along. I wouldn't stand for a job that required me to be concussed 18 times, as, to follow up on what Eco's Bones said, Dan LaCouture did. I would just go elsewhere. LaCouture wanted to play hockey and adopted a role that was asked of him. That decision is on him.He made money off his decision. He had the limelight, as it was, while he threw down. That's his choice - bask in it or maybe coach high school hockey.
For Purinton and others to finally, at the end of a terrible road, turn and point the finger at the NHL is just wrong, especially since they seek financial compensation in the form of a lawsuit. There is plenty of blame to go around on all sides, but something about a guy like Purinton going to Congress and pointing the finger of blame at the league just sounds like scapegoating and looking for a way to get those millions he could never have earned while playing.