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 discourag

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