Lawsuit Says a Bauer Re-Akt 55 Cracked Open on a Puck
A Los Angeles player's suit against Bauer Hockey and Pure Hockey puts a helmet failure claim, not a concussion protocol, at the center of the case.
The Bauer Re-Akt 55 is the piece of equipment at the center of a California product liability suit reported by the New York Post on Sept. 1, 2026, and the allegation is the one every player quietly worries about: that the shell did not hold.
Ivan Zenchenko, 32, was playing defense in a USA Hockey sanctioned game at the LA Kings Valley Ice Center on September 27, 2025, when a puck struck his helmet. According to the complaint as quoted in the Post's Sept. 1 report, the Re-Akt 55 cracked open and the puck reached his head. He bled on the ice, was taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital, and was treated for lacerations and a hematoma. The Sept. 1 report said he had not skated since the injury.
The defendants named in the Post's report are Bauer Hockey as manufacturer, and the Pure Hockey store in Anaheim that sold him the helmet on July 3, 2025, less than three months before the game. The Post quoted the complaint as alleging the helmet was "selected and recommended by Pure Hockey for Zenchenko's competition use on the ice," and that it "differs from manufacturing specifications and design from other typical units of the Bauer Hockey helmet product line." That is the key line for anyone reading this as a gear story. The claim is not that helmets cannot stop pucks in general. It is that this particular lid was either defectively designed or built off spec, and sold without adequate warning about its limits.
Worth being clear about what has not been established. These are allegations in a civil filing, not findings. The Post said it contacted Bauer and Pure Hockey for comment; its Sept. 1 report did not include responses. That report did not cite an independent medical assessment. The report did not identify a court or docket number, and named Bauer and Pure Hockey as defendants.
According to the Sept. 1 report, the lawsuit described the damages as "not yet fully ascertained." His attorney, Paul Sigelman, told the Post it was a multi-million dollar loss. Zenchenko's wife, Sofia, filed a loss of consortium claim alongside her husband's.
As of Sept. 14, Bauer lists the Re-Akt 55 helmet on its own retail website. The allegations reported by the Post concern Zenchenko's helmet and do not establish that the model is defective.
