Hockey fans and organizations across the country are mourning legendary coach Ernie “Punch” McLean, who has died in a crash in northern BC at the age of 93.
RCMP say investigators have confirmed McLean was the sole victim in a single-vehicle crash about 30 kilometers south of Dease Lake.
McLean coached 16 seasons in the Western Hockey League with the New Westminster Bruins and Estevan Bruins.
After six seasons in Estevan, McLean and his partner Bill Shinske moved the Bruins from Saskatchewan to BC, where he cruised with the New Westminster Bruins to four straight WHL championships from 1975 to 1978 and two Memorial Cup titles in 1977 and 1978.
He also coached the Estevan Bruins to a WHL title in 1968, which made him the only man to win five WHL titles as a coach.
The Vancouver Canucks are among those who took to social media to honor the coach, citing McLean’s record of four Memorial Cup appearances, two championships and one coaching of more than 100 players in the NHL.
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The post called him “a presence that can never be replaced.”
“Ernie ‘Punch’ McLean was the one – a legend of the game who gave everything to this province and the players lucky enough to call him coach,” the Canucks’ post read.
McLean officiated 1,067 total WHL games and also led Canada to a bronze medal at the 1979 World Junior Men’s Hockey Championship.
The Western Hockey League released its own statement, expressing its condolences on behalf of the WHL and its 23 member clubs to friends, family and all who knew McLean.
The tragic news comes the same week that the Ernie Punch McLean Foundation launched a campaign to build a permanent statue in McLean’s honor at Queens Park Arena in New Westminster.
McLean attended the press conference on Wednesday when the campaign was launched.
RCMP said in a news release Friday that officers responded to a call from a local road maintenance worker around 12:15pm on Friday who reported finding the car in an embankment.
They said the cause of the crash is still unknown, but their investigation suggests the man swerved and ran off the road, where he was ejected from the vehicle.
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