Before you consider the list of injuries that constitutes Fred Barrett's hockey career, know that doctors, after extensive testing, informed Fred that he had strong, healthy bones, the kind that didn't break easily.
When he was 16 he split his kneecap and missed half a season. The next year he had a huge bone chip in his ankle and missed all but two games of the Toronto Marlboros schedule. When he was 18, he had a few small injuries (including a broken hand), but he played 51 games.
After he was drafted by Minnesota and made the team in 1970-71, he fractured his thigh bone, the femur--you can count on your good hand the number of people to do that playing hockey--and then missed the better part of the next season with a recurring shoulder separation. The wounds continued in 1972-73: A broken hand in training camp, then more ankle trouble when he returned to the Minnesota lineup. In 1973-74, he deflected a slapshot in practice directly into his own jaw, breaking said jaw and ending his season.
Barrett was an aggressive, energetic player who threw his weight around, but according to him, every injury was the result of a freak occurrence. He could be hit hard by pucks and elbows and sticks and be fine, then a tap, seemingly innocuous, and his season was over. He healed quickly, as he did when he cracked a bone in his ankle in 1974-75. He was supposed to be back playing in two months; he was in the North Stars lineup in three weeks. Then he broke his hand again. The older brother of John Barrett, another NHLer, Fred mercifully ended his playing career in 1984, after another broken hand, a build-up of calcium deposits in his leg, and a back injury.
