Stephen Peat, a former Washington Capitals player who struggled with health issues that were believed to have stemmed from his hockey career, has died. He was 44.
The N.H.L. Alumni Association, which confirmed his death, said that Peat had died from injuries he sustained in “a tragic accident just over two weeks ago.” It was unclear when or where Peat died.
The Coroners Service of British Columbia said on Friday that it was investigating Peat’s death. It said that it was unable to provide additional details.
Peat, whose career began in 1995 and spanned more than a decade, was used mostly as an enforcer, a player on the ice who aims not to score goals but rather to start fights, harass the other teams’s stars and protect his own team’s best players. Within a couple of years after his professional playing career, Peat told The New York Times in 2016, he began experience headaches.
“The reason, I assume it is, is the blows to the head,” Peat said at the time.
The headaches, Peat said, were so bad that at times that they would force him to spend long stints in dark, quiet rooms. Doctors and scans had been unable to diagnose why Peat had experienced such debilitating headaches.
Walter Peat, Peat’s father, told The Times in 2016 that he worried his son had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head, that could have come from his playing career.
At 15, Peat was drafted into the Western Hockey League in 1995. He decided to forego college to play in the league. Walter Peat told The Times that he later regretted having let his son play in the league.
Peat was drafted into the National Hockey League in 1998 by the Anaheim Ducks, and he was traded in 2000 to the Capitals.
Peat played four seasons with the Capitals, from 2001 to 2006. In his best season, 2003-2004, he appeared in 64 games, scoring five goals.
After his playing career, Peat had a number of issues beyond his headaches. He was homeless at times. He struggled to hold down a job. He also ran into trouble with the law after bar and street fights and accusations of theft.
“Hockey’s been the greatest thing in my life, but it’s also been the worst thing in my life,” Peat told The Times in 2016. “It was great while I was playing, but what has it done lately? My peers of enforcers have become statistics and the N.H.L. is in denial. They’re denying that the job I did even existed, even though I sacrificed my quality of life, my well-being and my future greatly by being there for my teammates in the present.”
In March 2015, Peat set his father’s home on fire after leaving a blowtorch unattended. Peat said the fire had been an accident. He later pleaded guilty to one count of “arson in relation to inhabited property,” and a lesser count of arson by negligence. He was sentenced to a year’s probation.
The house was uninhabitable, forcing Peat and his father to stay with friends or family while they waited for their house to be rebuilt. Walter Peat told The Times that he was frustrated that many people who were close to his son thought he was a troublemaker, and that he was also frustrated at the N.H.L.
“Right now it seems like a battle we are losing,” he said, “but I will spend the rest of my life standing up for my son, as I believe he is a good young man, who needs help.”
A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.
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