Over the years the National Hockey League has seen plenty of world-class ice hockey. But on the flip-side it has also seen some horrific injuries. These injuries underscore the risks of playing this extremely physical sport, or any sport for that matter. So, let’s have a look back at some of the worst injuries in NHL history:
Trent McCleary’s fractured larynx
To understand the seriousness of this injury, it’s worth considering how McCleary 
describes it in a piece he wrote for CBC’s Player’s Own Voice section. “I am ‘The Shot,'” McCleary wrote. “I’m the one who almost died in the middle of a game on national TV on the ice of the Montreal Canadiens.” McCleary, in a January 29, 2000 match between the Canadiens and the Philadelphia Flyers, took a puck right in the throat. The impact left McCleary in intense pain, and unable to breathe. The pain didn’t end there. The impact ultimately ended McCleary’s playing career — at the age of 27.
Clint Malarchuk’s severed artery
If McCleary was “The Shot” then Malarchuk was “The Cut.” Yes, one of the NHL’s more reliable goaltenders is best remembered for his gruesome injury some 30 years 
ago. Malarchuk features in an article by Ladbrokes on the most famous sports injuries of all time, where they detail how he suffered a severed artery in his neck. Malarchuk was playing for the Buffalo Sabres at the time, and he suffered the freak injury on March 22, 1989, in a match versus the St. Louis Blues. The Blues’ Steve Tuttle crashed into the goal crease. As Tuttle tumbled over, his skate caught Malarchuk’s neck, slicing an artery in the process. He was 27-years-old at the time, and fortunately the goaltender survived the ordeal, thanks largely to the quick thinking and fast response of Sabres’ athletic trainer Jim Pizzutelli. Malarchuk was back on the ice 10 days after the injury, and played several more years as a pro thereafter. Post-retirement Malarchuk ventured into coaching, and served as head coach for teams like the Idaho Steelheads.
Kurtis Foster’s shattered femur
After the 2007/08 season, the NHL modified its icing rules. The league, ostensibly, wanted to minimize dangerous collisions, like the one Foster suffered in 2008. The collision occurred during a match between Foster’s Minnesota Wild and the San Jose 
Sharks. In the match, Foster collided with Sharks rookie Torrey Mitchell, who was racing to the puck to prevent an icing call. The Canadian defenseman was slammed to the board, with his femur shattered into three in the process. Foster missed the rest of that season, and part of the 2000/09 season to recover from surgery. A rod was inserted to stabilize his upper leg, which also required three screws: two in his knee and one in his hip. Foster ultimately made a full recovery, and played five more years in the NHL.
Bryan Berard’s damaged eye
In 1996, Berard took the NHL by storm. By 2000 he looked like the league’s next superstar. That all changed in a March 11, 2000 match between Berard’s Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators. In that match the then 22-year-old defenseman 
suffered a ruptured right eyeball, after it was clipped by the stick of Senators winger Marian Hossa. “I knew I was in trouble,” Berard recalled in an ESPN interview about the incident. “At that point, I was just hoping to save my eye and hopefully be able to come back and play.” The injury was so severe that doctors feared he might not see from his right eye again. He defied that grim prognosis, though he never again regained full visual acuity from that injured eye. Sadly Berard was unable to recapture his pre-injury form as well.
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