USA Youth Hockey; Mandating Neck Guards This Summer

Think you don’t need neck guards? Think again. In the fall of 2023, former NHL player Adam Johnson was killed by a skate to the neck while playing in Europe. This tragedy occurred while Johnson was skating up the ice when a player’s leg got lifted into the air and hit his neck. He died from massive blood loss. A similar death occurred to 16-year-old Teddy Balkind in Connecticut just after.

You can see I'm trying to make a point, playing hockey without a neck guard in this developing game could cost you serious injury or death. So USA Youth hockey wants to do the only thing that would keep this phenomenon from happening — Mandating neck guards!

Now informing the entire country about this new rule is no easy work and the fact that some states have had this rule for decades is a factor. The USA youth program decided it was best to say that on August 1, 2024, this rule would go into full swing.

If you are wondering how long you need to wear a neck guard, it is until you are 19 years old. Though most people and some NHL players say that you should keep your neck guard when playing on teams over 18, it is not necessary and you do not have to wear one at that point.

Neck guards are made of Kevlar — one of the most cut-resistant materials — and Spectra fibers. This makes them a perfect way to protect your neck from skate blades. One study found that using these materials caused almost no cuts to any 100, 200, or 300 N tests. And when they tried high-force tests, they found one neck guard that would stop cuts on high power — the Skate Armor Device. Another study found that after a test with 1000 college students (all wearing neck guards), the percentage of getting cut was reduced by around 94%!