A former goalie for the Philadelphia Flyers who helped lead the team to back-to-back Stanley Cups has died.
Bernie Parent was 80 years old.
NHL.com said Parent tied on Sunday.
The Flyers wrote on social media that the team “and the Ed Snider Youth Hockey & Education organization are heartbroken by his passing, calling him “one of the most famous and beloved players, and most popular figures in the history of the organization and city of Philadelphia.”
“Bernie Parent’s foreboding white mask was the last sight you wanted to see if you were an opposing shooter with a big game on the line. The grinning, welcoming face that mask protected was the first you wanted to see when you walked into a room. At his unbeatable, unflappable best on the ice when the stakes were highest, Bernie was a warm, gregarious bear of a man off the ice who was venerated in Philadelphia and adored throughout the hockey world,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told NHL.com in a statement.
Parent was born in Montreal in 1945, wanting to follow in the footsteps of Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante. He was part of the Niagara Falls Flyers when the team won the Memorial Cup in 1965.
He signed with the Boston Bruins and played there for two years.
But the goalie was unprotected in the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft, so the Flyers scooped him up. NHL.com said he was one of the league’s best goalies but didn’t have a winning record in Philadelphia, so he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1970-1971 season.
While in Toronto, he worked with his idol Plante, who said, “He’s probably got more natural ability than any goaltender in this league.”
Parent eventually signed with the World Hockey Association’s Miami Screaming Eagles in 1972, but the franchise never played, and he went to the Philadelphia Blazers. He left the team in 1973, and since the NHL held his rights, he went back to the Flyers.
During his second stint, he played 73 of the team’s 78 regular-season games in the 1973 to 1974 season, having the NHL single-season record with 47 wins. It was a record that was unchallenged for more than three decades. He was also instrumental in the Flyers’ Stanley Cup win. The next year, he won 44 games in the regular season and once again took the cup back to the City of Brotherly Love.
He won the award for the best goalie, the Vezina Trophy, in both 1974 and 1975, and the Conn Smythe Trophy both seasons, USA Today reported
The Hall of Famer retired after being hit in the eye with a stick that went through his goalie mask, causing permanent vision damage in 1979 when he was 34, USA Today reported.
Parent became a goaltending coach for the Flyers until the early 1990s and was a team ambassador after that, NHL.com said.
His number was retired the same year. He was enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984 and was among the 100 Greatest NHL Players in 2017, NHL.com reported.