NHL teams
Katie Strang, ESPN.com 10y

Canucks settle with Steve Moore

NHL, Detroit Red Wings, Vancouver Canucks

Former NHL player Steve Moore's long-running lawsuit against Todd Bertuzzi and the Vancouver CanucksĀ has ended with the sides agreeing to an out-of-court settlement.

The Canucks confirmed the settlement Wednesday, one day after Bertuzzi's lawyer, Geoff Adair, said the sides reached a deal.

"Canucks Sports & Entertainment confirms that a mutually agreeable and confidential settlement of the action commenced by Steve Moore against Todd Bertuzzi and the Vancouver Canucks has been reached," the Canucks said in a statement. "The settlement is a result of mediation sessions with former Ontario Chief Justice Warren Winkler. No further details will be disclosed and the Canucks respectfully decline requests for comment."

Adair previously said the sides had reached a "firm and binding settlement" and the case was "settled in its totality."

Moore was suing Bertuzzi and the Canucks for $38 million for a 2004 on-ice hit by Bertuzzi that ended Moore's career. Then a Colorado Avalanche player, Moore sustained a concussion and three fractured vertebrae and never played again.

According to a report out of Canada earlier this summer, Moore's lawyers sought an increase in damages to $68 million. The case was scheduled to go to trial on Sept. 8.

Moore was on the receiving end of a sucker punch to the head from behind from Bertuzzi that allegedly was made as retribution for a hit made by Moore on Canucks captain Markus Naslund in a previous game. Bertuzzi attacked Moore in a rematch between the teams on March 8, 2004, and left Moore with the broken vertebrae and concussion.

In March, a day before the 10th anniversary of the play, Moore told The Canadian Press he still has headaches and low energy.

"I lost my entire career in my rookie year," he said in recent years. "I think any player put in that situation would do the same thing. I can't recover anything else. I can't recover my career, the experience of living out my dream from the time I was 2Ā½ years old of playing in the NHL."

Bertuzzi was suspended by the league 13 regular-season games, plus the 2004 Stanley Cup playoffs. He was reinstated 17 months later, after the year-long lockout.

The 39-year-old veteran played for the Detroit Red Wings for the past five seasons but remains unsigned for the coming season.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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