Just three days after Claude Lemieux carried the torch in Montreal’s Bell Centre before the Canadiens took on the Hurricanes in Game 3 of the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals on Monday, he killed himself, TMZ reports.
Lemieux, 60, was found hanging by his son at Andros Home, a furniture store owned by his family in Lake Park, Florida, the outlet says.
The NHL Alumni Association announced the four-time Stanley Cup-winning forward’s death on Thursday.
Lemieux, who retired in 2009, played for four Stanley Cup-winning teams in his legendary career on the ice.
He was one of 11 players to win a Stanley Cup championship with at least three different teams.
Lemieux was drafted in the second round of the 1983 NHL entry draft by the Montreal Canadiens.
He played with the Canadiens from 1983-1990, winning the Stanley Cup with the team in 1986.
In 1990, Lemieux was traded to the New Jersey Devils, winning his second Stanley Cup in 1995 as New Jersey defeated the Detroit Red Wings.
Shortly before the beginning of the 1995-96 season, he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche.
When the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 1996, Lemieux became the tenth player to win back-to-back Stanley Cups with different teams.
In 1999, he was traded back to New Jersey, winning his fourth and final Stanley Cup title with the Devils in 2000.
Lemieux was known as one of the greatest playoff performers, with his 80 career playoff goals ranking as the ninth-most in NHL history.
“The National Hockey League mourns the passing of Claude Lemieux, one of the greatest big-game players in hockey history,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement.
