Another day, another young athlete is dead.
Toronto Maple Leafs forward prospect Rodion Amirov, the first-round pick of the Leafs in the 2020 NHL draft, passed away at the age of 21, reported CBS News.
Two years ago, Amirov was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Sad Day
There were very high hopes for this man, obviously, being a first-round pick. Like most other sports, the first-round pick is usually expected to be a slam dunk and the future of the franchise.
As an avid hockey fan, this is utterly devastating to the team, but not nearly as devastating to Amirov's family, who now has to deal with the death of a young man that had not nearly reached his peak in life.
His agent, Dan Milstein, confirmed his death.
He stated, "From the moment he received the news, he refused to speak in the negative, determined to enjoy every day, facing it with the same positive attitude he showed during his hockey career.
"We will always remember his courage, his desire, his will, his smile, all of the great things about him."
Even though the diagnosis happened two years ago, the Leafs did not make the news public until about 18 months ago.
Amirov got off to a good start, scoring nine goals and four assists in 39 games with the Salavet Yulaev Ufa of the KHL.
He returned to Russia after his first season, then sustained an injury before what would have been his second season in the league.
He would miss the first eight games of the season, then returned in September, but was injured again. At the time, the injury was very hush-hush, but he would return to play, first going to another minor league team, then being recalled to the KHL for the final games of the season.
And now is where things get interesting. Amirov was struggling for ice time, and by the time he worked his way up the roster to get some decent minutes, he was diagnosed with COVID.
While recovering from yet another "injury, the team stated that he had developed "new, unrelated symptoms that required ongoing extensive investigations over the last few months," reported ESPN.
So, let me ask this question again… when are we going to start to look at the deaths and health issues of all these young athletes that had COVID or received the vaccine.
At this point, until proven otherwise, there is simply no way that I believe these things are unrelated.
Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but when we start seeing a rash of teenagers having heart attacks that are literally world-class athletes, well, we need to find the cause, and the one thing they all have in common begins with the letter "C."
