Ex-NHL enforcer John Scott escapes plunge into icy lake

It remains hard to take down John Scott.

The retired NHL enforcer experienced a scary moment on Sunday when he went to clear a patch of ice on Cedar Lake in Traverse City, Michigan, and instead ended up in the cold water.

“It was a nice day, the sun was out, so I thought I’d go and shovel it off and skate maybe that night or the next day,” Scott told The Athletic. “So I went down there with a couple of shovels, put the headphones on, stepped onto the ice and boom, right through.”

Scott retired after the 2015-16 season, in which he garnered headlines for being traded and buried in the minors after being voted into the 2016 All-Star Game, eventually playing under the NHL logo instead of a team one and winning MVP honors. The controversial experience eventually led to the league clarifying that players sent to the AHL wouldn’t be eligible for the All-Star Game, referred to as the John Scott Rule.

The 6-foot-8 forward known more for his fists than deft hands during his eight-year pro hockey career with the Wild, Blackhawks, Rangers, Sabres, Sharks, Coyotes and Canadiens found himself struggling to get out of the icy depths of the lake.

“I couldn’t get up on my dock the first three or four attempts because I was soaking wet — I was just drenched,” he said.

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“I tried to hoist myself up but I couldn’t do it and there was no way I could get to a part where I could walk up because at the end of my dock it’s probably 20 feet deep and I couldn’t get around to where the beach starts, so I was like, ‘Either I get up on the dock or I don’t get up at all.’ I managed to find a somewhat solid piece of ice to put my foot up on and kind of hoist myself up, luckily.”

While Scott emerged largely unscathed from the incident — he says he only lost a shoe and a shovel — the life-threatening experience was enough to make him and his family reconsider their winter skating location.

“We’re going to maybe take this winter off,” Scott said. “We’ll go to the local rink for our open skates. That was enough to scare me away for this winter.”