CALGARY — In 1986, a bus carrying the Swift Current Broncos hit black ice and spun off the Trans-Canada Highway just east of their southwestern Saskatchewan city. Four players were killed.
For defenceman Bob Wilkie, who saw teammate Chris Mantyka in the final moments of his life, trauma haunted him and other surviving Broncos.
Mantyka, Trent Kresse, Brent Ruff and Scott Kruger died in the bus crash during Swift Current’s first season back in the Western Hockey League after a 12-year absence. Wilkie and other players from that team helped the Broncos win the 1989 Memorial Cup — a story of triumph over tragedy.
But mental-health support was nonexistent for traumatized teenage hockey players in the 1980s. Compounding the damage, Broncos head coach and general manager Graham James discouraged counselling to hide his own secret. James later served prison time for sexually assaulting players he coached.
The documentary “Sideways” by Trilight Entertainment, released for streaming Tuesday, examines how untreated trauma, anxiety and depression manifested in some players’ lives.
The 90-minute film features former Broncos Wilkie, Peter Soberlak, Dan Lambert and Scott’s brother Darren Kruger, as well as former NHL goalie Kelly Hrudey and L.A. Kings general manager Ken Holland discussing how hockey at the time failed to give young players the help they needed — and the cost of that failure.
“Life throws us a curveball, takes us sideways, and that’s kind of why we named it that,” Wilkie said. “You can feel a lot of shame, guilt, regret, disappointment in our stories.
“Going through this experience has really helped me see what we did overcome, how we did it together, how important community and connection are.
“It’s a hockey story, but it’s really a human story wrapped in hockey. You can apply this to first responders, to anybody who’s experienced any trauma in life.”
Wilkie, Soberlak and teammate Sheldon Kennedy, a James survivor, spiralled into alcohol abuse.
The documentary’s centrepiece is Wilkie, who was a promising defenceman drafted by the Detroit Red Wings. His post-traumatic stress disorder drained his ability to cope with hockey and with life, and led to suicidal thoughts.
If anyone had asked him what was wrong, Wilkie says he didn’t know how to express it. He eventually sought healing for himself.
“Just simply didn’t want to live that way anymore, and that was the beginning,” he said.
Now 56 and living in Calgary, Wilkie founded I Got Mind in 2008 to help organizations, including sports teams, improve mental wellness.
“It was really the awareness of what I went through, why I went through it and how I got out of it that kind of gave me the confidence to go, ‘I think I can help,'” Wilkie said.
Few were as prepared as Wilkie, Soberlak, Kennedy and Kruger to support the people of Humboldt, Sask., after a semi-trailer truck hit the Humboldt Broncos junior team bus on April 6, 2018, killing 16.
And among the people they helped was former NHL defenceman Chris Joseph, whose son Jaxon died in the crash.
“You could see how those conversations impacted because we could relate to everything that they were going to go through and that they were experiencing in that moment,” Wilkie said.
“Like Peter says in the documentary, ‘we needed more than a hug.'”
Wilkie doesn’t feel hockey is a lot better at addressing mental health than it was in 1986.
“There’s still a lot of ignorance of how we have these conversations,” he said. “There’s more awareness of the impact and the importance, for sure. Are we doing a better job? I think no, because athletes are more stressed and more anxious than they were when we played.
“The world has changed, but we haven’t developed the skills to be able to know how to live. We’ve got more anxiety, we’ve got more depression, we’ve got more addiction, we have more suicide than we’ve ever had. So no, I don’t think we’re doing enough yet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2025.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
