Former NHLer Bob Probert dead at 45
Posted July 5, 2010 9:53 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
WINDSOR, Ont. – A family spokesperson and a Windsor-based radio station has confirmed that former NHL tough guy Bob Probert has died.
Emergency crews were called to a boat on Lake St. Clair just after 2 p.m. Monday, where they found the 45 year old with vital signs absent.
“He was out on a boat with his family, with his children, with his father-in-law and mother-in-law. He developed severe chest pains, and was not able to be saved,” said Rick Rogow.
Despite father-in-law Dan Parkinson’s efforts to revive him, he was rushed to Windsor Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead just before 5 p.m.
Probert was born in Windsor, and played in the NHL for 16 years. He was a member of the Detroit Red Wings from 1985 to 1994, and of the Chicago Blackhawks from 1995 to 2002.
He was one of the league’s all-time great enforcers, and recorded 3,300 penalty minutes during his career – fifth on the NHL’s all-time list.
“Beneath that tough exterior and the reputation as being the toughest enforcer of the NHL over many years, he really was a very kind-hearted, sensitive, kind of shy person really,” Probert’s longtime lawyer Pat Ducharme told 680News.
“He was a lot smarter than most people gave him credit for. He was well spoken, he really understood things that were going on around him. He just unfortunately had demons in his life that he struggled with through his entire adult life.”
Since his retirement, he had been in and out of trouble with the law, and tried to repair his image by appearing on CBC’s Battle of the Blades last fall.
No funeral arrangements have been made at this point.
