By Murray Sherriffs
The Montreal Gazette has confirmed that NHL Habs-great Claude Lemieux took his own life at the family business in Florida. It is citing a media relations officer at the Palm Beach County sheriff’s office.
TMZ is also reporting Lemieux has died by suicide.
He was 60.
The NHL veteran was found overnight yesterday by his son, who went looking for his dad when he failed to return home.
The Athletic is also reporting the death as suicide.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has told told The Athletic, deputies responded early Thursday morning to a suicide attempt at Andros Home, a furniture showroom in Lake Park, Florida owned by Lemieux and wife, Deborah.
The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office has confirmed Lemieux’s death but declined to release any records, citing a Florida statute that exempts matters of suicide from be made public.
Lemieux was a second-round draft pick of the Montreal Canadiens in 1983, and spent his early career with Montreal before stints with the New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche, becoming one of the NHL’s most polarizing playoff performers.
He won his first Stanley Cup with the Canadiens in 1986, then captured another in 1995 with New Jersey, where he also earned the Conn Smythe Trophy after leading the postseason with 13 goals.
He added two more championships later in his career: Colorado in 1996; New Jersey in 2000.
Lemieux finished with 379 goals and 407 assists and ranks among the most prolific postseason scorers in NHL history with 80 playoff goals and 158 points over 234 games. He was known for a physical—often controversial—style of play.
Lemieux retired in 2009, after brief late-career stops in Phoenix, Dallas and San Jose, then worked as an agent and hockey executive.
