As critics blame Chris Simon's suicide on head injuries and NHL brawls, former Canadiens enforcer Chris 'Knuckles' Nilan says it's far more complicated: 'We can't draw a straight line from fighting to CTE'

The age-old debates over fighting and head injuries in hockey were reignited this week by the tragic suicide of long-time NHL enforcer Chris Simon, a complicated 52-year-old former player who was whistled for 101 fighting majors over his 15-year career.

'I'm angry and devastated at such a senseless tragedy,' NHL agent Allan Walsh wrote on X. '101 fighting majors and [NHL commissioner] Gary Bettman still denies the cumulative effects of repetitive head impacts. There is retired NHL players (sic) blood on Gary's hands. My condolences and sympathies to Chris' family and friends.'

The degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has already been blamed for Simon's death by his family, who explained in a statement that he 'struggled immensely' with the condition. But CTE can only be diagnosed posthumously, so that definitive conclusion, as well as other potential factors, may not be verified for some time.

Further complicating the discussion is the source of Simon's potential CTE. Whereas deputy NHL commissioner Bill Daly dismissed the connection between repeated head trauma and the brain disease on Wednesday, angry fans have insisted that Simon's death was the direct result of brain injuries from his many on-ice brawls.

But to Chris 'Knuckles' Nilan, a 66-year-old former Montreal Canadiens enforcer, fighting isn't the only possible culprit. Speaking with DailyMail.com in the wake of Simon's death, Nilan questioned the conclusion that fighting inherently leads to CTE, instead suggesting that violent checks are primarily to blame for head trauma in hockey.

Chris Simon (pictured in 1996) committed suicide this week at age 52. He had a 15-year career

Chris Simon (far left, near right) developed a reputation as one of the NHL's toughest players

Retired Montreal Canadiens winger Chris 'Knuckles' Nilan is pictured during a 2016 exhibition

'When guys get body checks, shoulder to shoulder, and they go into the boards, there is some disturbance there in the head, right?' Nilan, the South Boston native, told DailyMail.com from his adopted home of Montreal. 'The brain moves inside that cranium. So it's not just from a punch, it's from a lot more than a punch.

'I'm not saying it can't happen in fights and it has,' Nilan continued. 'But I believe that the instances of guys getting really bad concussions comes more from violent body checks than [punches] to the head.'

Cautiously, Nilan refrained from making any assumptions about Simon's condition: 'I don't know if he had [CTE] or not.'

There is some anecdotal evidence that Simon had the disease: His two divorces, a 2017 bankruptcy and doctor-diagnosed depression, anxiety as well as post-traumatic stress disorder are all hallmarks of someone battling CTE.

But for Nilan, and the many researchers studying CTE, it can be hard to decipher between correlation and causation.

'I think for me it's really difficult 'cause I always see people wanting to draw a straight line from hockey fighters to CTE and that's the reason they got it: 'cause they were fighting,' Nilan said.

Chris Simon flips over George Parros of the LA Kings during 2006 brawl in Calgary 

Chris Nilan is seen with teammate John Chabot after fighting a Rangers player in New York 

Nilan admittedly can't speak knowledgably about Simon's decline because he didn't know him very well. His own career was ending in 1992 just as Simon was entering the league as a burly 6-foot-4 winger with long hair and a nasty disposition.

The two did meet at a California gym in the early 2000s ('He was a really nice kid'), but while Nilan wasn't personally close with Simon, he knows what it's like to struggle as an NHL retiree. Only in his case, the issue was addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs.

As for CTE, Nilan doesn't know if he has the disease and it's not something he spends much time worrying about. He's done well on recent cognitive exams despite decades of abuse on and off the ice, and while his own mother has battled dementia, the retired winger believes he's avoided any noticeable decline.

But after roughly 300 NHL fights, Nilan does share some traits with deceased former athletes who have battled the brain disease. For instance, beyond his addiction to pain killers and booze, there was his admitted anger control issues.

So like many of his retired counterparts from the NFL, Nilan has agreed to donate his brain to Boston University's CTE Center so that he can posthumously aid researchers' efforts to solve this problem.

The Canadiens' Chris Nilan draws back his fist against Philadelphia's Daryl Stanley in 1987

These days Nilan is the host of his own podcast, Raw Knuckles, where he interviews many past and current NHL figures on a variety of subjects, including the sport's safety.

And while it may come as a surprise to some who want to see fighting eradicated from the NHL, Nilan believes it still serves a purpose.

'I know it can be a deterrent at times, and I'm not saying all the time, but it can be a deterrent,' Nilan said.

To him, fighting offers a way to police a sport that officials often struggle to control.

'I saw a guy get two handed over the head this year in Boston and nothing,' Nilan said. 'It wasn't even a penalty.'

By fighting, he explained, players have the ability reprimand each other for dirty plays in a way that officials can't.

Chris Simon was known for his long hair and willingness to fight for much of his career

'When you open a door to [taking] fighting out, I think you're gonna see a lot of instances where people do crazy stuff,' he continued. 'Like whether it's a chicken wing elbow to someone's head and knocks 'em out cold or leaving their feet and ramming their head through the glass or running someone from behind through the boards and then they don't get up and they're laying there.'

Nilan doesn't think that all fighting is warranted, and he's encouraged to see fewer and fewer enforcers doting NHL rosters in recent years. Whereas decades ago, teams had one or two players who could do little else but fight, these days, even the league's biggest brawlers happen to be skilled.

'I think they've done great strides in stopping all the brawling and all that stuff,' he said. 'And also stopping the guy that just sits on the bench and goes out to fight, doesn't play the game.'

Asked if the NHL is doing enough to help former players, Nilan pointed to his two stints in rehab, both of which were paid for by the league: 'They were there for me.'

But when it comes to current players, Nilan believes more can be done.

Most importantly, Nilan said, the league could bring back the red line at center ice, thereby reinstituting the NHL's abandoned rule against two-line passing. The rule existed from 1943 until 2005 and was aimed at preventing teams from firing passes from their own defensive zone to a cherry-picking player on the other half of the ice.

But the rule against two-line passes also served to slow the game down, thereby reducing the number of high-impact checks.

'It's a little different when that red line's in there and teams have to come up the ice together,' Nilan said. 'They just can't all of a sudden wheel behind their net, skate as fast as they can, cut across the ice past the red line, ship the puck in where a defenseman has to run back and get it and you got somebody up your a** going 90 miles an hour.'

NHL agent Allan Walsh was one of many to point the finger at commissioner Gary Bettman 

The problem, Nilan said, is that the league likes the fan-friendly pace of play: 'There are things that they could do if they want to, but they don't want to do that.'

Similarly, the league is in no rush to ban fighting – something that has alternately helped and hindered the popularity of the sport over the years.

Data on the dangers of NHL brawls is still lacking, but a Columbia University study from 2023 found that enforcers die an average of 10 years earlier than their fellow players.

Dr. Dave Ellemberg, a professor at Universite de Montreal, argued that the study bolstered the case against fighting in the NHL.

But many skeptics, including Nilan, remain. Without fighting, they say, NHL players will come to rely on cheap shots to gain an edge. And in a sport that relies razor-sharp skate blades and 65-inch fiberglass sticks, that could prove even more dangerous than simply dropping gloves. 

'I will, probably until the day I die, defend [fighting],' Nilan said.

WHAT IS CHRONIC TRAUMATIC ENCEPHALOPATHY (CTE)? 

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease that is caused by repeated hits to the head. Over time, these hits result in the accumulation of tau protein around the brain, which can lead to confusion, depression and eventually dementia.

There have been several retired football players who have come forward with brain diseases, many of whom attribute their condition to the game. 

More than 1,800 former athletes and military veterans have pledged to donate their brains to the Concussion Legacy Foundation for CTE research.

CTE was usually associated with boxing before former NFL players began revealing their conditions. 

Several notable players who committed suicide were posthumously diagnosed with the disease, such as Junior Seau and Aaron Hernandez. 

While often connected to concussions, many researchers like Lee E. Goldstein, MD, PhD, an associate professor at Boston University, now believe sub-concussive hits also play a major part in CTE. 

'Over the course of an NFL season, the overwhelming majority of hits are sub-concussive,' Goldstein told DailyMail.com. 'I'm not saying [the NFL is] wrong for focusing on concussions. But I am saying they're mis-prioritizing.' 

On top is a normal brain, unaffected by chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). On the bottom,  a brain sample from deceased former University of Texas football player Greg Ploetz, who had stage IV CTE, as seen by the dark tau protein buildup around the edges