Edmonton Oilers center Colby Cave suffered a brain bleed last night and is in a medically induced coma, the team announced Tuesday. Cave, who split time between the Oilers and their minor-league affiliate Bakersfield Condors this season, is undergoing treatment in the critical care unit at the Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.
#Oilers & @Condors forward Colby Cave has been placed in a medically-induced coma & admitted to the critical care unit at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto after suffering a brain bleed overnight. Please keep Colby & his wife Emily in your thoughts & prayers at this time.
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) April 7, 2020
This season Cave, a 25-year-old from Canada, scored one goal over 11 games with the Oilers. In 44 games with the Condors, he totaled 23 points (12 assists, 11 goals). Cave saw his first NHL action with the Boston Bruins in the 2017-18 season. He earned significantly more playing time the following year, a combined 53 games with the Bruins and Oilers (Edmonton claimed him off waivers midseason.)
The Oilers own the fourth most points in the Western Conference (83) and would be a playoff team if the postseason started today. But with the COVID-19 pandemic spreading worldwide and Cave's recent medical scare, the team has much more to concern itself with than a return to play.
This isn't the first serious health scare for an NHL player this year. In February, St. Louis Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester collapsed during a game after suffering from a "cardiac episode," requiring a defibrillator shock to survive. The 36-year-old underwent an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) procedure later that week to normalize his heart rate.
