Derek Boogaard of the Rangers died because of an accidental overdose of the drug oxycodone mixed with alcohol, the office of the medical examiner in Minnesota’s Hennepin County announced Friday afternoon in a news release.
The medical examiner’s statement said that cause of death was “mixed alcohol and oxycodone toxicity.” It also said the “manner of death is accident,” though it did not disclose how it came to that determination.
Oxycodone is a powerful painkiller that can be addictive in some forms. It is better known by its commercial name, OxyContin.
Boogaard, a 28-year-old enforcer, was found in his Minneapolis apartment by family members last Friday. The medical examiner said it could not determine the time of death.
In accordance with Minnesota law, the statement continued, “no nonpublic/private data will be released.” The medical examiner’s office “encourages the media to respect the family’s privacy.”
Boogaard’s funeral will be held Saturday in Regina, Saskatchewan, at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chapel, and will be closed to the public. Boogaard’s father was an R.C.M.P. officer, and one of his two brothers is also a member of the R.C.M.P.
Boogaard played 22 games for the Rangers in his only season with the club after five seasons as a popular enforcer with Minnesota. His Rangers tenure was cut short when he sustained a shoulder injury and concussion in a fight with Ottawa’s Matt Carkner on Dec. 9. It was at least the third concussion of his N.H.L. career.
Boogaard did not play again after the fight, and spent time recovering from the concussion, first at his apartment in Minneapolis and later at his apartment on West 57th Street in Manhattan and at the Rangers’ training center in Westchester County. He told a reporter from The Minneapolis Star-Tribune that he needed sunglasses when he left his Manhattan apartment because sunlight bothered him and that he felt isolated as he recovered from the concussion.
The Boston University School of Medicine said this week that Boogaard’s brain would be examined for signs of a degenerative disease often found in athletes who sustain head trauma.
Last week, Georges Laraque, a recently retired N.H.L. enforcer and a friend of Boogaard’s, told Sirius XM Radio that Boogaard was “was down a bit.” Laraque said that Boogaard told him he was medically cleared to play at the end of the season. But, Laraque said, Boogaard told him that the Rangers said he should wait until next season.
Laraque said Boogaard believed Coach John Tortorella did not have a place in the lineup for him.
“Derek told me that he was cleared to come back, and he wanted to play,” Laraque said. “The team told him just to take the rest of the year off and get ready for next year. He didn’t tell me who said that. He just told me the team said that.”
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