Former Washington Capitals forward Stephen Peat died on Thursday, Sept. 12. He was 44.
The NHL Alumni Association revealed the news in a Sept. 12 post on X (formerly known as Twitter), announcing that the retired NHL enforcer died after he succumbed to his injuries following a “tragic accident just over two weeks ago.”
No further details about the incident were provided. However, the NHLAA confirmed, “Stephen will be helping to save numerous lives through organ donation.”
“We send our deepest condolences to Stephen’s family, friends, and former teammates during this difficult time,” the NHLAA said.
The Capitals also expressed their “heartfelt condolences” to Peat’s family and friends. “Our thoughts are with his loved ones during this difficult time,” read the team’s X post.
Stephen Peat during NHL game action on October 25, 2003 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Graig Abel/Getty
Born March 10, 1980, in Princeton, British Columbia, Peat began his career at 15 years old and played for five years in Canada’s Western Hockey League. He was drafted third overall in the 1995 WHL bantam draft, per Hockey Draft Central. He later played for the Red Deer Rebels, Tri-City Americans, and Calgary Hitmen, per Sports Net. During his WHL tenure, he scored 11 goals and made 36 assists in 203 games.
The NHL veteran joined the league in 1998 after the Anaheim Ducks drafted him with the 32nd overall pick. He then spent a year with the Portland Pirates in the American Hockey League (AHL). Peat was traded to Washington, where he played for the Capitals from 2001 to 2005 and made eight goals and two assists in 130 games.
Peat ended his professional career after one game with the Albany River Rats, a former AHL affiliate of the New Jersey Devils, in 2006.
While Peat earned a reputation on the ice, he claimed the sport affected his well-being. In a 2016 interview with the New York Times, he spoke about possibly suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head that cannot be accurately diagnosed until death, per the Mayo Clinic.
At the time, Peat and his father, Walter, were concerned the NHL player could suffer an early death like other NHL enforcers.
“Hockey’s been the greatest thing in my life, but it’s also been the worst thing in my life,” Peat told the Times. “It was great while I was playing, but what has it done lately? My peers of enforcers have become statistics and the N.H.L. is in denial. They’re denying that the job I did even existed, even though I sacrificed my quality of life, my well-being and my future greatly by being there for my teammates in the present.”
In the same Times article, Peat and Walter discussed when Peat pleaded guilty to arson by negligence in September 2015. The charge was in connection with a fire that occurred at his father’s house in March 2015.
Stephen Peat at MCI Center on October 30, 2002 in Washington, DC.
Mitchell Layton/Getty
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The next year, in November 2017, Walter sought out a no-contact order put in place against his son. In the New York Times’ 2017 follow-up to the 2016 piece, Walter described his son as a violent man who was experiencing severe headaches, which Walter theorized was due to Stephen’s NHL tenure.
Peat refuted the allegations, telling the Times, “I am disappointed in my father since I once held him so high on a pedestal.”
