This past week, the unthinkable happened in the hockey world and a whole team was lost in a terrible airliner crash. The plane carrying Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of Russia’s KHL went down on take-off, killing all but two. The devastation is still incomprehensible with the loss of so many great players and individuals.
Brad McCrimmon was to be a head coach for the first time after always being an assistant coach since his retirement from playing in the NHL. The team was headed to play their first game of the season.
McCrimmon played three years with the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League from 1976-77 to 1978-79. Over his three seasons in the WHL, Brad totalled 279 points, a very respectable total for a defenseman. In his final season with Brandon, the team stormed through the WHL with a regular season record of 58-5-9 for 125 points. The Wheat Kings were regular season and playoff champions. They were downed by the Peterborough Petes in overtime of the Memorial Cup final, 2-1. McCrimmon was named to the Memorial Cup All-Star team.
Brad was taken by the Boston Bruins fifteenth overall in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft. He played 1222 regular season NHL games between 1979-80 and 1996-97 with the Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames, Detroit Red Wings, Hartford Whalers and Phoenix Coyotes. With the Flyers in 1987, McCrimmon went to the Stanley Cup finals before losing in the seventh game to the Edmonton Oilers. Two years later, he got his Stanley Cup ring with the Calgary Flames, winning over the Montreal Canadiens in six games.
McCrimmon has served as an assistant coach with the New York Islanders, Calgary Flames, Atlanta Thrashers and Detroit Red Wings. He spent the past three seasons behind the bench with the Red Wings before jumping at the chance to be head coach in Russia.
The Brad McCrimmon rookie card appears in the 1980-81 O-Pee-Chee series, number 354. Although not valued as high as the Mark Messier rookie card from the same series or teammate Ray Bourque’s that also appeared in the 1980-81 series, Brad’s card is valued at $2.00.
Brad McCrimmon and the rest of the players lost in this tragic accident will be sorely missed by the hockey world.