Video of Adam Johnson incident leads to serious accusations.

Over the weekend the hockey community was shaken to its core when a terrible on-ice accident led to the death of former Pittsburgh Penguins forward Adam Johnson. Johnson, who was playing for the Nottingham Panthers of the Elite Ice Hockey League at the time, was struck in the neck by the skate blade of Sheffield Steelers defenseman Matt Petgrave.

While most believe this was all a terrible accident, over the weekend a number of users on social media expressed their belief that Petgrave's actions on the ice may not have been an accident at all. While you might be quick to dismiss these as anonymous trolls on the internet, the sentiment has been growing and there are now relatively high profile accounts echoing that same sentiment.

On Monday morning Stew Peters, of the Stew Peters show, a user with over 440,000 followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, leveled an extremely serious accusation at Petgrave by outright accusing the man of murdering Adam Johnson.

"Matt Petgrave is a straight up MURDERER," wrote Peters emphasizing his accusation in capital letters.

"He literally roundhouse kicks this guy with his skate, slashing his throat and killing him on the ice."

These are extremely serious accusations being broadcast to hundreds of thousands of users on social media, accusations that I do not believe at this time have any merit whatsoever. While I would be willing to entertain the argument that Petgrave may have been reckless with his skates, his leg did lift high enough to strike Johnson in the neck while he was standing upright, to accuse a young man of murder without evidence is simply outrageous.

Peters is far from being alone in this belief however, another high profile account, @Anc_Aesthetics, with over 330,000 followers has also accused Petgrave of deliberately targeting Johnson.

Dozens of smaller accounts have also echoed this sentiment, here are just a few examples:

So far there has been no indication that this incident is under investigation or even that the Elite Ice Hockey League intends to discipline Petgrave for his part in the tragedy that occurred this weekend.


Update: According to an update on Monday morning, South Yorkshire Police have now confirmed they are investigating the matter with assistance from Sheffield City's health and safety team.

"Our officers remain at the scene carrying out inquiries," said a police spokesperson in a statement.

"Our investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident remain ongoing.

"We would encourage the public to avoid speculation regarding the incident while we continue our inquiries."

Update 2: 3 former NHL players have also expressed doubts about whether or not this was an accident.