Joona Koppanen will usually stand out in just about any room he enters.
At 6-foot-5, he is a hard fellow to miss.
But even in the realm of the Pittsburgh Penguins dressing room, which is stocked with a handful of future members of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Koppanen is unique.
He is one of the relatively few players on the NHL roster who wears a neck guard.
Upon being recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on March 18, Koppanen brought his neck guard, which, in his case, is part of the collar on the compression shirt he wears under his shoulder pads.
“It’s smart to use,” Koppanen said in Cranberry on Friday. “I’ve seen a couple of those cuts before, necks, ankles or wrists or whatever. So, I think it’s smart to use those.”
Pittsburgh Penguins management made neck and wrist guards mandatory for their minor league affiliates (including the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers) last season. That mandate came into being after former Penguins forward Adam Johnson died as a result of being struck in the neck by an opponent’s skate while playing in the United Kingdom’s Elite Ice Hockey League in October of 2023.
Any changes regarding equipment at the NHL level cannot be levied without approval from the NHL Players’ Association and thus far, any discussions on that matter have yet to lead to any augmentations.
But during the NHL’s general managers meetings in Manalapan, Fla. last week, Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald, a former Penguins executive, offered an impassioned stance of making neck guards mandatory among his peers.
Fitzgerald’s appeal came after his son, Casey Fitzgerald, survived a cut to his neck while skating as a defenseman with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack in December.
“My message was just: Tell the players you don’t want your parents potentially going through something like this, how scary it is,” Fitzgerald told the Associated Press. “Put as much protection on as you possibly can because you’re going to stop playing at some point, and you’re going to have to live the rest of your life, so live it.’”
In addition to Koppanen, the only other members of the Penguins NHL roster who don neck guards are forward Bryan Rust and defenseman Ryan Graves.
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“It’s definitely not as comfortable wearing it as it is not wearing it,” Graves said. “But does it impact my game? No. … There’s not really a reason not to, in my opinion. I have a family. Do I really care that it doesn’t look as cool? It’s not like I’m the most stylish player. It’s one of those things that if it did happen, I think I’d be really kicking myself for not wearing it.
“It doesn’t really impact my game for not wearing it. Hockey is obviously a huge part of our life. But there’s things that are bigger than that. It’s one of those precautions that’s easy to take. If guys don’t want to wear it, that’s their choice. I’ll wear it probably forever now.”
It appears the vast majority of active NHLers will not wear one presuming the choice is still theirs to make.
If the NHL does implement rules on neck guards in some fashion, they may take a “grandfather” status where they are only mandatory for incoming players.
Such measures were taken when the NHL passed rules for visors and helmets decades ago.
“Maybe grandfathered in,” said Penguins forward Sidney Crosby, who has not worn a guard since his days at the junior level, where it is mandatory. “That’s something if guys are already wearing them at the junior level, they’ll be used to them (upon entry into the NHL). It will be something that will probably be easier to transition.”
Crosby’s coach is not ambiguous with his opinions on neck guards.
“I support the idea of making it mandatory,” Mike Sullivan said. “We should do everything we can to make the game as safe as possible for these guys, understanding it’s inherently violent, the nature of the game. So, you’re going to assume risk when you play. That’s just the world that we live in. But I think we should make it safe as we possibly can for the players to compete.”
Koppanen has been wearing one ever since they became mandatory in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton following Johnson’s death.
He won’t be changing that anytime soon.
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“Yeah, 100 percent,” Koppanen said. “I think how many unnecessary cuts you can avoid, it’s really smart. It would be a good idea.”