A fight between Seattle Thunderbirds defenceman Ashton Cumby (left) and Tri-City Americans blueliner Terrell Goldsmith has brought attention to the necessity of fighting in hockey. (YYCguy7/X)

By Austin Mattes

Is it Necessary?

Scary WHL fight raises concerns about fighting in hockey

Mar 13, 2025 | 11:30 AM

A Western Hockey League (WHL) game between the Tri-City Americans and Seattle Thunderbirds came to an abrupt end earlier this week following a fight between Thunderbirds defenceman Ashton Cumby and Americans blueliner, and former Prince Albert Raider, Terrell Goldsmith, which sent Goldsmith to the hospital with serious injuries.

During the fight on Tuesday, Goldsmith’s helmet came off and after a punch landed by Cumby, Goldsmith was knocked out unconscious and fell face first on to the ice unprotected, resulting in a seizure. The team’s medical staff attended to him immediately and then brought him to a hospital to be treated by further medical care. The seriousness of the on-ice altercation prompted the game to be suspended just one minute into the second period.

The fight led to several debates online from hockey fans and others who went back and forth about whether there is still a place for fighting within the sport.

On the X platform, one person wrote, “It’s all fun and games until this s*** happens. How can anyone think that this belongs in hockey?”

Another added, “Stupid game, how do they actually allow and support fist fighting, due to nothing more than tradition?”

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Saskatchewan hockey scout Kevin Henry, who has seen his fair number of fights, said he was shocked when he saw Goldsmith fall.

“My reaction initially was…I was almost I guess a little bit in shock. I watched the fight and that place just went dead silent and complete panic. I think it was a good move not to continue that game because it shows the human side to it, like let’s take a step back and let’s just make sure he’s okay,” said Henry.

Henry, who is also the father to former WHL enforcer Matt Henry, added that one of the scariest things about these fights is being a parent watching them.

“I can wholeheartedly tell you when you see your son on the ice in a fight, you are literally living that fight with them. You want them to be safe most of all and you don’t want to see them get hurt. Anxiousness, would be the only word I would describe it as,” said Henry.

For someone who isn’t a regular part of the elite hockey world, Henry said fighting may be seen as unnecessary violence, but he, for one, would rather see a fight than the athletes getting out of hand and ‘playing dirty.’

“I would rather see two guys fighting each other mutually because they have a problem with each other, rather than one guy gets hit from behind or dirty checks and hurts someone, and let’s be honest, fans ultimately love a good fight and when the guys are on the ice, they get broken up and the whole place cheers,” he said.

Throughout the past few decades, the NHL and junior hockey leagues have made strides in make fighting not as prominent in the game by introducing rules that punish players for doing so. In the WHL, a player typically receives a game misconduct for fighting and possibly a suspension depending on how many fights they’ve had that season and if they are an instigator or aggressor.

As a result the WHL has seen the number of fights per season drop drastically. According to hockeyfights.com, the 2023/24 season the WHL had 334 fights through about 1,500 games, compared to 2010/11 where they had 859 fights in just under 1,600 games.

Even with fighting clearly becoming less prominent, Henry said that it would be hard to completely take it out of the game.

“[Fighting] is not changing. I know there are lots of people there who think we’ll just simply ban it. Unless you played that game, that mindset is just completely different of those guys, because even the players want to fight, but they don’t want to go in there and give these people career-ending injuries or life-threatening injuries,” he said.

However, just because fighting is in the game Henry said, leagues can still do their best to try and make it as safe as possible and it’s situations like this that everyone can learn from.

“All these players are young kids. They’re going to have to go into the workforce unless they’re lucky enough to play in the NHL and statistically that’s less than 1%, that’s where my concern is. There is an educational part here and hopefully the league recognizes it, and Hockey Canada recognizes it too…once the helmets come off, you got to stop the fight,” Henry said.

The Tri-City Americans posted to social media saying that Goldsmith is still in the hospital but is awake, responsive and in good spirits.

The suspended game has been postponed to a later undetermined date.

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Austin.mattes@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @AustinMattes