Role As An Enforcer
Boogaard's knockout of fellow enforcer Todd Fedoruk in a fight during a game against the Anaheim Ducks helped spark debate over increasing the punishment for fighting in the NHL. During this fight, Boogaard landed a brutal punch to the cheek sending Fedoruk to the ice. As a result, Fedoruk had to undergo surgery to reconstruct his shattered cheek using titanium plates. Fedoruk and Boogaard would later become teammates in Minnesota during the 2007–08 season. On November 6, 2005, Boogaard knocked out the Mighty Ducks' enforcer Trevor Gillies with an uppercut to the jaw.
Anxiety over having to face Boogaard, even occasionally, and the possibility the younger man might inflict similar injuries on him led Georges Laraque to retire. "I knew sooner or later he would get the better of me," he said after Boogaard's death. "And I just—I like my face, and I just didn't want to have it broken."
Boogaard and his brother Aaron, who plays hockey for the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees of the Central Hockey League, ran the Derek and Aaron Boogaard Fighting Camp in Regina, Saskatchewan, for children aged 12 to 18. This sparked some controversy, with some people siding with the Boogaards, saying that they are teaching children how to not get hurt in a fight, and others opposing them, with the position that the Boogaards' camp encourages children to fight.
Read more about this topic: Derek Boogaard
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