Nash injury confirmation

[evilnaturedrobot]

not only that, but since when do coaches ever reveal the truth about the health of their players?  Injuries are always closely guarded, this isn't unique to Cornell, the ECAC, college hockey, or even hockey as a sport.
How many times have you heard the term 'lower body injury'?  Unless a team is forced to divulge this sort of information (ala the NFL's mandated injury report) they're not going too.  The less an opposing team knows about the health of your players the less they can game plan.

[DILLIGAF]

Evil:

You raise an interesting point and one that drives me crazy.  The new trend with colleges is to hide behind the banner of "medical privacy" in order to not discuss / fully disclose an injury to an athlete.  That is fine for you or me, but for a varsity athlete it is not, especially for those schools that are scholarship schools.  

NCAA football is a little better, injury reports are given on a weekly basis and if a player is questionable or out for the next game it and the injury is disclosed.  Hockey should be the same.  

Not to take anything away from Nash, but had his status been known prior, would he have been given the preseason nod?  Likely not.  

This isn't just a Cornell or Mike problem.  It is a NCAA hockey problem.  There should be a NCAA wide policy on the reporting and disclosure of injury and status due to injury.

[evilnaturedrobot]

The thing is that many of these players are aspiring pro prospects.  I know last year I heard from a friend, who was also friends with the team, about injuries to certain players and asked not to repeat the information because these players had careers in front of them.  What if a player is looking to get signed at the end of the year and it comes out that the player suffered an injury during the year that could discourage NHL teams from inking him?  Is it the place of the coaching staff to reveal this information and cost that player a professional contract?

[Jordan 04]

[quote DILLIGAF]

NCAA football is a little better, injury reports are given on a weekly basis and if a player is questionable or out for the next game it and the injury is disclosed.  Hockey should be the same.  
[/quote]

People bet on NCAA football.  Nobody bets on NCAA hockey, so nobody really cares about injuries being disclosed, so I don't see why it should be required.

[Beeeej]

Other than a nice feather in his (and Cornell's) cap, though, who cares that he got the preseason nod?  I don't think student-athletes should be required to sign away their federal privacy rights at the door just because they play a sport.  It sets a very uncomfortable precedent.

[Jim Hyla]

[quote DILLIGAF]Evil:

You raise an interesting point and one that drives me crazy.  The new trend with colleges is to hide behind the banner of "medical privacy" in order to not discuss / fully disclose an injury to an athlete.  That is fine for you or me, but for a varsity athlete it is not, especially for those schools that are scholarship schools.  

This isn't just a Cornell or Mike problem.  It is a NCAA hockey problem.  There should be a NCAA wide policy on the reporting and disclosure of injury and status due to injury.[/quote]

I don't see why a student, athlete or not has to give up his rights. Even if you get a scholarship, you are still a student and above all a person living in the US and under US laws. If we don't get to satisfy our prurient interests, so be it. To ask all of them to sign away their rights just to play a sport, well it just doesn't seem right to me. I wrote a lot more, but couldn't agree more with Beeeej:

I don't think student-athletes should be required to sign away their federal privacy rights at the door just because they play a sport. It sets a very uncomfortable precedent.

God, a doctor agreeing with a lawyer, what will happen next?

[Jim Hyla]

[quote Beeeej]I'm quite sure it was, but I'm also quite sure he knows how to spell "sarcasm."[/quote]

Or just use an emoticon. After all, Age has supplied us with easy access and that is what they are for.

[ugarte]

[quote Jim Hyla][quote Beeeej]I'm quite sure it was, but I'm also quite sure he knows how to spell "sarcasm."[/quote]

Or just use an emoticon. After all, Age has supplied us with easy access and that is what they are for.[/quote]
Emoticons are the devil.

[Josh '99]

[quote ugarte][quote Jim Hyla][quote Beeeej]I'm quite sure it was, but I'm also quite sure he knows how to spell "sarcasm."[/quote]

Or just use an emoticon. After all, Age has supplied us with easy access and that is what they are for.[/quote]
Emoticons are the devil.[/quote]

[KeithK]

[quote evilnaturedrobot]The thing is that many of these players are aspiring pro prospects.  I know last year I heard from a friend, who was also friends with the team, about injuries to certain players and asked not to repeat the information because these players had careers in front of them.  What if a player is looking to get signed at the end of the year and it comes out that the player suffered an injury during the year that could discourage NHL teams from inking him?  Is it the place of the coaching staff to reveal this information and cost that player a professional contract?[/quote]
It seems to me that it would be at least borderline fraud to conceal an injury while negotiating and signing a contract where performance is dependent on physical fitness. IANAL so maybe it's not fraud under current laws but it's at least dishonest.  I would imagine that teams all require a physical before finalizing a contract and if I were the GM I would ask for relevant medical history as well.

In Nash's case there really is no reason to try to conceal this injury.  If a player misses half of a season it's obvious that there is some sort of serious injury.  Not talking about it isn't going to prevent pro teams from knowing about it.

Then again, there's no reason Nash should have run to the rooftops and shouted to the world that he was hurt over the summer.  It's not really relevant information for the world at large until it's hockey season (i.e. now).

[Lauren '06]

[quote KeithK]IANAL[/quote]
Sometimes it's just better to spell things out.

[Ben Rocky '04]

[quote Josh '99][/quote]

If you didn't do it, I was going to myself.

[evilnaturedrobot]

[quote KeithK][quote evilnaturedrobot]The thing is that many of these players are aspiring pro prospects.  I know last year I heard from a friend, who was also friends with the team, about injuries to certain players and asked not to repeat the information because these players had careers in front of them.  What if a player is looking to get signed at the end of the year and it comes out that the player suffered an injury during the year that could discourage NHL teams from inking him?  Is it the place of the coaching staff to reveal this information and cost that player a professional contract?[/quote]
It seems to me that it would be at least borderline fraud to conceal an injury while negotiating and signing a contract where performance is dependent on physical fitness. IANAL so maybe it's not fraud under current laws but it's at least dishonest.  I would imagine that teams all require a physical before finalizing a contract and if I were the GM I would ask for relevant medical history as well.[/quote]

Never did I say anything about concealing an injury during contract negotiations, but rather during the season.  Any injury, even if it's been fully recovered from, could potentially hurt the chances of a player being signed.  You have to remember that most of these guys are late round draft picks and borderline prospects, NHL teams don't need much to cross them off the list and move on.
And I'm sure that full physicals are performed, perhaps they find something perhaps they don't, but I don't see it as the coaching staff's job to announce to the world that: "Player X had Y injury a year ago, missed a game and then took a cortisone shot and played through it."  Is this dishonest? Yes, a little, but I see it as the player's choice to reveal this information, as it is he that will ultimately effected by it.  This is a living we're talking about, I can certainly understand why a pro prospect would want to keep some of this stuff under wraps.  

You're right that in Nash's case their is very little point in hiding the information at this point, but I know he was at least looked at during last summer's draft.  Ultimately he was not taken, but revealing this injury probably would have destroyed any chance that he had.  It's something to consider.

[Beeeej]

NHL teams may not require a physical before finalizing a contract, but when they don't, I think they for damn sure make the finalized contract contingent on a physical.

[evilnaturedrobot]

Absolutely they do.  My point is not that there are massive injuries being concealed here, merely that the player would prefer to reveal as little information as possible about his injury history.  I think that's understandable.