Former Detroit Red Wings Prospects Loses Finger in Gruesome Incident
Photo credit: Grand Rapids Griffins
Former Detroit Red Wings prospect who last played with the Griffins in 2019-2020 suffered a gruesome injury in the Swiss National League, and is now recovering.
Vili Saarijarvi left a bit of himself in Switzerland while playing with Langnau in the Swiss National League.
Everything seemed to be status quo for the forward who was playing in Bern, Switzerland, for Langnau. But during the game, he'd grab the puck in the air in a move players have done hundreds of times before, with no hitch.
For Saarijarvi, during the match in January, would felt horrifying pain after performing the action, and he immediately knew something was wrong.
Inexplicably, the Finnish defenseman's finger was still inside the glove, but it was torn off!
«It was unbelievable that the finger didn't break,» Saarijarvi told Finnish website Iltalehti. «Instead there was a bone sticking out of it.»
For the Finnish defenseman, Saarijarvi, time mattered; he had to rush to the hospital in order to save his finger quickly. However, there was no healing to help the fact that his finger was dead.
«It was there for a week, but it remained dead,» Saarijarvi said. «The blood did not reach the end. Therefore, the finger had to be shortened.»
There's been no definitive answer on why his finger remained dead after the trouble of going through surgery to keep it alive.
What's even more troubling is establishing how the finger was severed by the puck itself.
«We thought about it several times and we worked out theories on how it was possible,» Saarijarvi said. «We just figured out that the pressure of the stick on the finger went in one direction and the puck came from the opposite side. The edge then caused the finger to get pinched.»
He'd only miss five games after the amputation, and has since returned to the ice and has been playing for the Finnish Nationa Team in the IIHF World Championships this season.
Saarijarvi was a 73rd overall pick in the 3rd-round of the 2015 NHL Draft.
| POLL | ||
MAI 15 | 62 ANSWERS Former Detroit Red Wings Prospects Loses Finger in Gruesome Incident Have you ever had a freak accident playing hockey, like defenseman Vili Saarijarvi, a former Detroit Red Wings prospect, experienced in Switzerland? | ||
| Yes | 13 | 21 % |
| No | 49 | 79 % |
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