The NHL and NHL Players Association are looking into an incident involving a player who was taken to a hospital but allegedly remained untreated for hours.
Juuso Välimäki, a defenseman for the Arizona Coyotes, sustained a mouth injury at the American Airlines Center last month. In a game against the Dallas Stars, Välimäki took a direct 93 mph slapshot from Stars defenseman Jani Hakanpää at the start of the third period.
Bleeding from the mouth, the Finnish athlete was immediately rushed off the ice and did not return for the remainder of the game. Video footage captured Välimäki under the care of Dallas Fire-Rescue as he left the ice. Upon arriving at a Dallas hospital, Välimäki was reportedly left untreated for hours until his wife involved the NHLPA.
The NHLPA, in collaboration with the NHL, confirmed a joint investigation into the matter, which has been responded to by the Stars.
“The Dallas Stars are aware of the incident involving Arizona Coyotes defenseman Juuso Välimäki and are fully cooperating with the NHL and the NHLPA in their investigation,” the team said on The Dallas Morning News. “The team will have no further comments at this time.”
Meanwhile, both the league and the Coyotes have yet to comment on the situation.
NHLPA intervention and belated treatment
Hakanpää’s shot struck Välimäki's face just after 9 p.m. local time, triggering a swift unfolding of his injury. Immediately leaving the ice, Välimäki received attention from Stars doctors, who recommended surgery, as per reports by Frank Seravalli from NHL media Daily Faceoff.
By 9:40 p.m., Välimäki was already undergoing a CT scan, accompanied by his wife Vilma and a Coyotes representative. The initial report showed that he endured significant injuries, including a hole in his mouth, a bloodied face and substantial internal bleeding. The injury also left him “unable to function.”
Overwhelmed by more critical trauma cases, the hospital staff instructed Välimäki to go to a nearby hotel and return the next morning. This advice, though, could have resulted in dire consequences, given hiss internal bleeding and fractured bone.
Välimäki was initially told that surgery was delayed for two days. However, around 11 p.m., Vilma contacted the NHLPA to intervene, citing the hospital’s lack of care for her husband. He eventually received treatment after a prolonged five-hour wait.
The NHLPA’s intervention secured him surgery in the early morning hours. Reports further revealed that he was neglected in the ER for an hour and it took four hours until the staff even started cleaning his face.
The 25-year-old had 55 stitches, lost three teeth and suffered a fractured bone. Doctors also noted that if Välimäki had followed the staff’s previous instructions to go back to a hotel, he could have ended in life-threatening asphyxiation from his own blood.
Välimäki made a comeback on the ice two weeks later, on November 30, for Arizona’s game against the Colorado Avalanche. In his fifth NHL season, he has tallied six assists for six points in 22 games, consistently wearing facial protective gear.
Notably, the Stars are scheduled to face Arizona twice more this season. One is at home on March 20 and away on March 24.