The lawyer representing the family of the late Steve Montador could not believe what he was hearing from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman prior to Game 3 of the Western Conference Final.

Addressing the media in Chicago, Bettman contended there's no evidence to link hockey to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease discovered to have been suffered by Montador following his untimely death on Feb. 15.

William Gibbs - who plans to file a lawsuit on behalf of the Montador family against the NHL - strongly disagrees, as told to Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune:

Certainly, we believe very strongly that there is a lot of evidence regarding that correlation and that connection. The only way that one can acquire CTE - I'm no scientist - but I've read, is through repetitive head trauma. When we know that someone has been involved in a sport professionally for a decade that encourages fighting, which certainly exposes the brain to trauma, and through the natural course of a game has certainly a propensity to cause trauma to the head, it doesn't take a genius to add that all together and say professional hockey in Steve Montador's case caused his CTE.

Gibbs added he was shocked by Bettman's comments.

"I presumed that he must have been misquoted because it made no sense to me," he said. "Mr. Bettman seems to be saying that there is no link between repetitive head trauma sustained during a professional hockey career and later in life issues, which is shocking in this day and age."

Montador suffered a series of concussions during a 571-game NHL career that was cut short due to a season-ending head injury as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2011-12 season.

The lawsuit is expected to be filed in the coming months.