Former National Hockey League, New York Rangers’ player Don Raleigh dies at the age of 86
Don Raleigh, a former National Hockey League (NHL) player, who played for New York Rangers for many years, died at the age of 86, confirmed by his family on Tuesday.
According to his son, Jack Raleigh, he was in critical condition and was alive only on the life support, and the family decided to withdraw it and give him a peaceful sleep forever. He died in Kingston, Ontario.
At the age of 17, Raleigh was one of the youngest players to have ever played in the National Hockey League (NHL), back in 1943-1944 season. He was very smart and was nicknamed, “Bones” because of being skinny. His weight was just 150 pounds, also making
him one of the lightest players to have played league.
Raleigh was a member of Manitoba Sports Hall of fame and Hockey hall of fame because of his contributions and services for the game, and one of his friends, who is also a member of both clubs, Sam Fabro talked about his friend as he said,
"He was a pretty good player. He wasn't a Maurice Richard, but he did his share. He was a good athlete all around”.
The deceased was a member of Winnipeg winter club and their manager Rob Guthrie also had few good things to say about Raleigh. According to him former Rangers’ captain was a very simple person and not many knew about his past until they posted his achievements
on the wall. Guthrie said,
He was very unassuming. He would never tell you he played in the Original Six; he just went about his business. A lot of people didn't know him as anybody but the guy with the colourful socks and mismatching outfits on the tennis court. A lot of people had
no idea he was captain of the Rangers until we inducted him into our Wall of Fame and put his poster on the wall”.
In the 11 seasons he played for Rangers, he scored goals in the Stanley Cup finals, and on many other big occasions as he played total of 535 games, scoring 101 goals, 219 assists for total of 320 points.
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