Detroit Red Wings team physician Dr. Tony Colucci says a defibrillator was indispensable when defenceman Jiri Fischer collapsed on the team's bench Monday night with a stopped heart.

Fischer, 25, collapsed during a game Monday night and went into convulsions.

Colucci said it appeared that something caused Fischer's heart to stop, which then led to the convulsions.

He and a team of medics were able to restart Fischer's heart with chest compressions and an automated external defibrillator (AED).

Fischer was then removed on a stretcher and taken to hospital. He will remain there for further testing over the next two days. He is now stable, breathing on his own and in good spirits, the team's general manager Ken Holland says.

"It's been a tough 12 hours for our organization," Holland told a news conference in Detroit on Tuesday. "The great news is that Jiri Fischer is doing very, very well."

Colucci said that incidents like these that show how important defibrillators are.

"The AED monitor that was at the scene… any lay person can apply it; it's fairly simple," he said.

"You place it on the chest and basically, the machine evaluates the cardiac situation and rhythm and then it tells you exactly what to do and how to shock it.

"That is one of the crucial things I want to come out of this: that an AED monitor should be in every public place."

Currently, AED monitors are not mandatory in most sports venues. Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, now coach of the Phoenix Coyotes, would like to see that change.

"It can happen to anyone anytime," he said about what happened to Fischer.

"You are talking about the fittest athletes in the world and something like that happens. But my hat goes off to the Red Wings and their medical staff at how well prepared they were."

It isn't clear what caused Fischer's heart to stop. "There's no way to speculate on what triggered it," Colucci said.

Team officials refused to discuss Fischer's medical history during the news conference, but Fischer himself announced in September 2002 that he had been diagnosed with a heart abnormality.

The problem was found on an electrocardiogram as part of a routine battery of tests during the Red Wings' pre-season physicals.

When the result was abnormal, the Czech Republic native was given a stress test, which he passed.

"There is a little abnormality, but nothing that will stop me from playing," Fischer said at the time. "It's nothing that will bother me emotionally."

He said that his heart essentially is a little thicker than normal.

"I wasn't scared about the abnormality," Fischer said. "But I was scared about not playing hockey again. That was a shock for me."

On Monday night, Fischer had covered six shifts during the game's first period, logging four minutes 52 seconds of playing time and recording one hit in a match against the Nashville Predators.

When he returned to the bench after the sixth shift, he collapsed and went into convulsions. Play was stopped after the Wings alerted officials to the medical problem.

The game was later suspended and will be rescheduled.

Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman, a 22-year NHL veteran, said watching Fischer collapse was "the scariest incident I've been involved in."

"We turn and see Jiri laying between the boards and the bench and we're not sure why," he said. "You fear for the guy's life at that moment. I can't remember anything like that."

Colucci said he didn't know when Fischer could play again.

"We're going to evaluate him on a daily basis," he said.

With a report from CTV's Ravi Baichwal