Richard Derek Blight (October 17, 1955 – April 3, 2005) was a professional

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

player. A native of

Portage la Prairie, Manitoba Portage la Prairie () is a small city in the Central Plains Region of Manitoba, Canada. As of 2016, the population was 13,304 and the land area of the city was . Portage la Prairie is approximately west of Winnipeg, along the Trans-Canada Hi ...

, Blight had a long and varied hockey career as a

Right wing Right-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this pos ...

for teams in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL),

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

(CHL) and the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

(AHL). After playing

junior hockey Junior hockey is a level of competitive ice hockey generally for players between 16 and 21 years of age. Junior hockey leagues in the United States and Canada are considered amateur (with some exceptions) and operate within regions of each cou ...

in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and the

Western Hockey League The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a major junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior h ...

, Blight was selected by the

Vancouver Canucks The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference, and ...

in the first round of the

1975 NHL Amateur Draft The 1975 NHL Amateur Draft was the 13th NHL Entry Draft. It was held at the NHL office in Montreal, Quebec. The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia Flyers made the most noise at the draft, trading Bill Clement, Don McLean, and t ...

. Blight was also drafted by the

Michigan Stags The Michigan Stags were a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit that played a portion of the 1974–75 season in the World Hockey Association. On January 18, 1975, the team folded, but the league immediately took over operation and moved ...

in the second round of the

1974 WHA Amateur Draft The 1974 WHA Amateur Draft was the second amateur draft held by the World Hockey Association. The first two rounds of the draft were conducted in secret in February and only graduating junior players (born in 1954) were eligible for selection. The ...

, but did not play in the WHA. The name Blight is of Cornish origin.

Playing career

Blight was the Canucks' top scorer over his first three years in the NHL, finishing fifth, first and second in team scoring in 1975, 1976 and 1977 with a total of 187 points. Blight was the recipient of the WCHL Rookie of the Year Award in 1973, and was a member of the CHL Second All-Star Team in 1981. Blight retired from playing hockey in 1983 and began a career as a stockbroker and marketing consultant, as well as managing his family farm in his native

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

. In 1995, Blight was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame. On April 3, 2005, Blight disappeared. Two weeks later, on April 18, after a Canada-wide search, Blight was found dead in a field on a farm near Lake Manitoba in his pickup truck. He had committed suicide.

Awards and achievements

*1973: WCHL Rookie of the Year *1981: CHL Second All-Star Team *“Honoured Member” of the

Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame The Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum is a hall of fame and museum for ice hockey in Manitoba, located on the main level of the Canada Life Centre in downtown Winnipeg. It was established in 1985, when the first honoured members were named ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Personal

His niece,

Halli Krzyzaniak Halli Krzyzaniak (born February 4, 1995) is a Canadian women's ice hockey player, currently playing for the Calgary section of the PWHPA. She made her debut with the Canada women's national ice hockey team at the 2014 4 Nations Cup. Playing ca ...

, currently plays in the

Canadian Women's Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; french: Ligue canadienne de hockey féminin ‒ LCHF) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the leag ...

for the

Calgary Inferno The Calgary Inferno (previously known as Team Alberta, nickname "Honeybadgers", during the 2011–12 season) was a women's ice hockey team that joined the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) for the 2011–12 season. The team played its home g ...

References

External links

*
Profile at hockeydraftcentral.comRick Blight's biography
at th
Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blight, Rick 1955 births 2005 suicides Brandon Wheat Kings players Canadian ice hockey right wingers Canadian people of Cornish descent Canadian stockbrokers Cincinnati Tigers players Ice hockey people from Manitoba Los Angeles Kings players Michigan Stags draft picks Moncton Alpines (AHL) players National Hockey League first-round draft picks New Haven Nighthawks players Sportspeople from Portage la Prairie Portage Terriers players Suicides in Manitoba Vancouver Canucks draft picks Vancouver Canucks players Wichita Wind players 2005 deaths