Don Henderson Files $10.25M Lawsuit Against Dennis Wideman

Calgary Flames fans remember the incident which took place on January 26th, 2016 quite well. The Flames Dennis Wideman was hit by Miikaa Salomaki of the Nashville Predators in his own zone. It was an awkward hit that saw Wideman sort of whiplash his head against the glass.

Only a few seconds later was skating back to the bench visibly shaken but under his own accord when he reared back with his stick and and checked linesman Don Henderson in the back of the head. Wideman saw a 20 game suspension for the incident which was reduced to ten games after he had already sat out 19. Henderson fared considerably worse.

Since that incident, Henderson has not officiated a single game of hockey. On July 30th, 2016, it was announced that Henderson had surgery on his neck to repair two fractured vertebrae in his neck. Those around him feared that he would never officiate again.

Today CTV News and TSN announced that they received word that Henderson has filed a 10.25 million dollar lawsuit against Wideman.

The Flames are also named as defendants in the case. In the case, Henderson claims to have suffered from injury to the neck requiring surgical intervention, injury to the back, shoulder injury, pain, numbness and tingling in the right arm and hand, injury to the right knee, shock, anxiety, depression, headaches, and permanent and partial disability among other ailments. That information was relayed from Chris Epp of CTV via Twitter.

Per Epp, Henderson’s lawsuit also claims that Wideman was aware that he was hitting Henderson and that he disregarded NHL rules. Henderson also claims that Wideman’s hit cost him ten million dollars in lost and future income capacity. Neither Wideman nor the Flames have commented yet.