Damar Hamlin cardiac incident brings back chilling memories for Pronger

The Hall of Fame defenceman and former Hart Trophy winner knows how lucky he was to have survived a medical incident known as commotio cordis

Demar Hamlin, left, and Chris Pronger were both at the apex of their physical powers when they suffered in-game cardiac incidents.

Hall of Famer Chris Pronger was watching Canada’s World Junior Championship game against Slovakia Monday night with his son when his phone started blowing up. And it hasn’t stopped since then. It has been almost 25 years since Pronger was struck in the chest by a Dmitri Mironov slapshot that resulted in a case of an often-fatal medical incident known as commotio cordis, but seeing Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills collapse and having to be revived couldn’t help but send Pronger back to that fateful night in Detroit in May of 1998.

Like Hamlin, Pronger was in his early 20s and at the apex of his physical powers when he fell to the ice that night. Like Hamlin, whose mother was at Cincinnati’s Payco Stadium when a seemingly innocuous tackle early in the game triggered a cardiac arrest, Pronger’s parents were in the Joe Louis Arena that night. As was the case with Hamlin, both Pronger’s teammates and opponents were stunned and shaken. But that’s essentially where the similarities end between Pronger and Hamlin.