Summer of Sadness
Another tragedy for the NHL last week, as Wade Belak took his own life in a Toronto apartment complex. This is the third unnatural death of a NHL player this summer. All three of the players that died were enforcers.
Belak had retired from playing at the professional level this spring. He had spent 15 seasons in the NHL and was intending to take up a new position as a TV analyst for the Nashville Predators, his final team in the NHL.
He had also been named as a cast member for CBC’s “Battle of the Blades.”
Like Rick Rypien and Derek Boogaard, the two other players who were lost this summer, Belak’s future looked promising. But somehow the pressure was too much for the once feared enforcer.
All three of the men who died were considered fighters on the ice, but were loved off the ice amongst their teammates. “He was always upbeat,” commented Nashville’s GM David Polie. “Everybody knew when Wade Belak was in the room because he was big, he was loud and he was fun.”
Belak was only 35 years old. He leaves a wife and two children behind.
Wade Belak (1976-2011)
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