Gino Odjick, one of NHL’s most feared fighters during his 12 seasons in league, dies at 52

Gino Odjick, one of the NHL’s most feared fighters during his 12 years in the league, has died, the Vancouver Canucks announced. He was 52.

Odjick racked up 2,567 regular-season penalty minutes, ranking 17th all time. According to hockeyfights.com, he had 148 NHL fights. He totaled 1,285 penalty minutes in his first four seasons and had a career- and league-best 371 minutes in 1996-97.

Born in Quebec, the native Algonquin was drafted in the fifth round by the Canucks in 1990 and became one of the team’s most popular players.

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His fights included one against the St. Louis Blues’ Adam Creighton in which he ended up bare-chested and challenged other players.

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Though Odjick was mostly known for his fists, he scored 16 goals in 1993-94 as he spent time on Canucks star Pavel Bure’s line. Vancouver went to the Stanley Cup Final that year, losing to the New York Rangers in seven games.

Of Odjick’s 64 career goals, 13 were game-winners.

“Gino was a fan favorite from the moment he joined the organization, putting his heart and soul into every shift on and off the ice,” Canucks chairman and governor Francesco Aquilini said in a statement. “He inspired many and embodies what it means to be a Canuck.”

He was traded to the New York Islanders in 1998. He received an eight-game suspension in January 2000 for sucker-punching Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Darius Kasparaitis.

Odjick finished his NHL career with the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens, last playing in 2002.

Current Canucks player Ethan Bear, a native Canadian, said Odjick created a path for other Indigenous players and had talked to him, including shortly before he was traded to Vancouver. 

“I heard I scored right after he passed,” Bear told reporters Sunday. “I think that’s pretty powerful. I mean it was meant to be. Maybe he was there for me on that shot.”

Odjick said the pounding he took during his career took its toll as he had to deal with concussions.

“I remember, in the last two years of my career, getting a concussion, going into Philly and walking around,” Odjick said a concussion symposium in 2014. “People just looked like Martians. They looked like they were from another planet. I couldn’t remember how to get to the rink for half the season. I was totally forgetful.”

He was diagnosed in 2014 with the rare condition amyloidosis, which produces protein deposits in the heart. He went into remission with chemotherapy but had relapses.

An arena was named after Odjick in Maniwaki, Quebec, and he was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in Vancouver. 

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gino Odjick, one of NHL’s most feared fighters during his 12 seasons in league, dies at 52