Former NHL enforcer files for bankruptcy

Former NHL enforcer Chris Simon recently filed for bankruptcy and is now said to be living off of social assistance and disability checks. Simon recently revealed that he is more than a half a million dollars in debt.

Simon, who is now 45, filed for bankruptcy on May 15th. The debts of the former NHL player, who collected more than US$15 million in salary over a 20-year career, include more than three years of missed child support payments totaling $128,875 after his hockey career ended due to a knee injury, according to documents filed with the Ottawa family court.

Included in his document, Simon has requested that the court excuse three years of missed child-support payments – which adds up to $128,875 – on the grounds of his inability to work due to injuries that eventually ended his NHL stay. Simon claims he suffers from symptoms commonly linked to CTE, including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, which, as he stated, are "thought to be attributable to significant brain trauma during his hockey career."

I have no ability to pay the alleged arrears or enter into any form of payment agreement, Simon, who played his junior hockey with the Ottawa 67s, wrote in an affidavit filed with the family court office in Ottawa on May 15. My financial situation is bleak.

Simon undeniably perpetuated violence in the NHL during the 1990’s and 2000’s as one of the most prolific enforcers the league has seen. He has more than 100 fights on record, collected nearly 2,000 penalty minutes, and was suspended eight times. Two of those bans were the result of stomping and stick-swinging incidents, which earned him suspensions of 30 and 25 games, respectively. All told, he missed 65 games due to his seemingly bottomless indiscretions.

Simon once ran a hockey school, but that too is now insolvent. His other debts include $25,000 to a book publishing company for an advance on a book that was never written, about $30,000 in back taxes and $1,444 for his cell phone. His joint bank account was in overdraft by $11,349 and he still owes tens of thousands of dollars for both property taxes and water and sewer to Michipicoten Township. He owes $33,189 on a Visa credit card and another $18,673 for a loan to the Superior East Community Futures Development Corp., his documents allege.

Simon reported earning only $27,500 in tax exempt income (he is a member of the Michipicoten First Nation) from the hockey school over a two-year period between 2014 and 2015 before expenses were deducted.

According to the court filing, once all the property and his other assets are sold, Simon would still owe his creditors $182,625.

To add further context, Simon, who was embattled with addiction and plagued by on-ice incidents even before reaching the NHL, has a league-mandated pension at his disposal, but has chosen not to take from it. Doing so would apparently prevent him from dodging his current debt, which his ex-wife claims he’s done previously by failing to disclose his income – most recently in his post-NHL career in Russia.