Alex "Sandy" Hucul (December 5, 1933 – February 6, 2022) was a former

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

. Hucul was born in

Eston, Saskatchewan Eston is a town in Snipe Lake Rural Municipality No. 259, Saskatchewan, Canada. The population was 1061 at the 2016 Census. The town is located at the junction of Highway 30 and Highway 44 approximately 70 km south-east of Kindersley. ...

. Hucul had a long playing career, turning professional in 1954 with the

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-o ...

of 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 ...

. He would remain with the WHL for almost his entire career (barring a partial season in

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

with the

Buffalo Bisons The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen ...

of 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 ...

), playing for the Spokane Comets, the

Victoria Maple Leafs The Victoria Maple Leafs were a minor pro ice hockey team in the Western Hockey League (WHL) that played three seasons in Victoria, British Columbia, beginning in 1964. They were the farm team of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The previous season the te ...

and for his final five seasons, the Phoenix Roadrunners. He won the

Hal Laycoe Cup HAL may refer to: Aviation * Halali Airport (IATA airport code: HAL) Halali, Oshikoto, Namibia * Hawaiian Airlines (ICAO airline code: HAL) * HAL Airport, Bangalore, India * Hindustan Aeronautics Limited an Indian aerospace manufacturer of fight ...

as the league's best defenceman in 1968 and 1972, after which he retired as a player. Hucul served an interim stint as the Roadrunners'

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

in 1970, and was named the permanent coach after his retirement, also serving as head coach of the WHA Roadrunners from 1974 to

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

when the team joined the

World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association (french: Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) ...

, winning the Howard Baldwin Trophy as the coach of the year in 1975. After the Roadrunners left the league, he continued as coach for two more seasons in the Central and Pacific minor leagues until the team finally folded after the 1979 season. In the 1980s Hucul survived a bout with rectal cancer. Hucul died in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...

, on February 6, 2022, and is survived by his loving & long-time wife Shirley, two daughters and two sons.

Coaching record

External links

* 1933 births Calgary Wranglers coaches Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Canadian ice hockey coaches Canadian ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey people from Saskatchewan People from Eston, Saskatchewan Phoenix Roadrunners (WHA) Phoenix Roadrunners (WHL) players Spokane Comets players Victoria Maple Leafs players World Hockey Association coaches {{Canada-icehockey-defenceman-1930s-stub