Wednesday, August 31, 2011

R.I.P. Wade Belak (1976-2011)

Former Nashville Predator, Toronto Maple Leaf, Florida Panther, Calgary Flame, and Colorado Avalanche has been found dead in Toronto, according to TSN.

Belak, who was known for being a tough guy, had recently retired from playing after a 16-year NHL career, with his longest stop being in Toronto for eight years.

He had been preparing to take part in the reality sports TV show Battle of the Blades on CBC.

Belak finished his NHL career with eight goals and 25 assists along with 1,263 penalty minutes in 549 regular season games.

He was beginning to work on radio and as an in-game reporter for the Nashville Predators, the team he last played for looking to get into a media oriented job.

Belak is the third enforcer found dead this summer after New York Ranger's Derek Boogaard and Winnipeg Jet's Rick Rypien were both found dead, both with some dark pasts.

However, Belak was on the opposite, not having any dark past. He had two young girls and a happy family to all accounts.

Belak was 35.

1 comment:

  1. Maybe "not having any dark past" that we knew about (yet)? I am sure that we would all be very interested to hear more about the details of this tragedy.

    I already said to myself (after Rypien), "One more and we just might have a problem here."

    We can only ignore this type of thing for so long...

    Keep up the great posts!

    ReplyDelete