"My wife was a mess": Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald opens up about his son Casey's gruesome injury scare after taking skate blade to to his neck

New Jersey Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald talked about his son Casey's skate blade injury on Tuesday. Hartford Wolf Pack defenseman Casey suffered a serious neck cut during an AHL game on Dec. 28 against the Providence Bruins.

Casey was wearing a cut-resistant neck guard, which is mandatory in the AHL, but that didn't stop him from getting injured, as the skate blade hit just above it. The injury was close to Casey's jugular, which could have been life-threatening. The cut initially went unnoticed before a Providence player warned him:

“Dude, your f—ing neck is cut.”

Tom Fitzgerald and his wife, Kerry, were having dinner in New Jersey when they saw Casey getting hurt. The couple were watching their son play on their phone while sitting at the restaurant.

"My wife was a mess,” Fitzgerald said recalling the incident, via The Athletic. "I was cautiously optimistic because he stayed on the ice."

Hartford’s medical team stopped the bleeding and rushed Casey to the hospital. He needed 25 stitches to close the wound.

"He called us from the ambulance on the way to the hospital, saying, ‘I’m OK. I’m gonna be OK,’” Fitzgerald said."We kind of broke down there."

However, despite the gruesome injury, Casey returned to the ice after missing just two games.

Earlier a similar skating incident took place in October 2023, where former Pittsburgh Penguins player Adam Johnson died due to a neck injury. He was cut on the neck by a skate blade during a collision with Sheffield Steelers' Matt Petgrave.

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Tom Fitzgerald urged NHL players to wear protective gear

Speaking to the other NHL GMs during their annual meeting, Tom Fitzgerald talked about such injuries as a parent.

Before he spoke, the GMs saw pictures of Casey’s injury because Fitzgerald wanted to raise awareness around such incidents. He suggested posting such pictures in locker rooms.

"Honestly, we should post these pictures in locker rooms," Fitzgerald said, via NHL.com. "I can't look at Casey's neck, but if people see that maybe they go, 'This is serious' or 'I don't want to be this.'"

Tom Fitzgerald wants players to think about their families when making safety choices. He said careers are short, but life is long as he urged players to wear cut-resistant equipment.

"Maybe they would think of their parents or their loved ones or their kids, their wife and say, ‘I could do more to protect myself long term.’" Fitzgerald said.

After Casey’s injury, the NHL has worked on developing Kevlar chin strap prototypes to protect players' exposed area near the neck from skate blades.