Goodbye to Guy Lafleur at the age of 70.
LaFleur was the top overall pick in the 1971 draft by the Montreal Canadiens, who were looking a year ahead with their desire to land LaFleur and traded their 1970 first-rounder and Francois LeCombe to the California Golden Seals for their 1971 first-round pick and Ernie Hicke.
California then finished with the league's worst record which was transferred to Montreal, who then selected LaFleur.
Lafleur led Montreal to five Stanley Cup wins and scored over fifty goals for six consecutive years for the Canadiens but issues with coach Jacques Lemaire led LaFleur to retire and after being elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, LaFleur returned in 1988.
Lafleur would play one season with the Rangers and two with the Quebec Nordiques before retiring for good in 1991.
Lafleur is still the all-time leader in points in Canadiens history and second in goals behind Maurice "Rocket" Richard.
Goodbye to Mike Bossy at the age of 65.
Bossy was the sniper from the right-wing for the New York Islanders teams that won four straight Stanley Cups and never scored less than fifty-one goals in his first nine seasons before retiring after scoring thirty-eight goals in his final season in 1986-87 with a bad back injury,
Bossy led the league in goals twice and finished second on three other occasions as well as being a three-time winner of the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly conduct on the ice.
Bossy is the Islanders all-time leader in goals (573) and playoff goals and holds the league record for 50 plus goal seasons (nine tied with Wayne Gretzky and Alex Ovechkin), most 60 plus goals seasons (five tied with Gretzky), and of players with 200 goals or more in their career, Bossy holds the highest average in goals per game at .762 per game.
Bossy was also the subject of a prototype pinball machine "Mike Bossy The Scoring Machine" but only one machine was ever produced.
Goodbye to Erich Barnes at the age of 86.
Barnes played in six Pro Bowls during a fourteen-year career with the Giants, Bears, and Browns and is one of those very good players that slipped through the cracks for the football hall of fame.
Barnes still holds the Giants record for longest interception return when he intercepted a Dallas pass and ran 102 yards for a touchdown in 1961.
Barnes also is remembered for a tactic that has long been outlawed as when the goalposts were placed inside the end zone, Barnes would stand in front of the goalposts and attempt to leap into the air and bat the ball down before it could clear the crossbar.
Goodbye to Freeman Williams at the age of 65.
Williams was a prodigious scorer at Portland State, where he led the nation in scoring in both 1977 and 1978 before being selected eighth overall in the 1978 draft by the Boston Celtics.
Williams would never play for Boston as he was part of the franchise swap between Boston and the Buffalo Braves, who then moved to San Diego as the Clippers.
Williams averaged over eighteen points a game in both his second and third seasons in San Diego before being traded to Atlanta where his career quickly trailed downhill and he was out of the league after six seasons.
Goodbye to Clayton Weishuhn at the age of 62.
Weishuhn was the Patriots best all-around linebacker at a time when the team also had future Hall of Famer Andre Tippett and still holds the team record for tackles in a season which he set in 1983.
Weishuhn suffered a knee injury in the 1984 opener that would cost him the rest of the 1984 season and all of 1985 and would play only thirteen more games in the NFL (four in 1986 with New England and nine with Green Bay in 1987) before retiring.
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