Legendary playoff performer passes away and the NHL will never have one like him again: Claude Lemieux

The hockey world lost something rare when Claude Lemieux died - not just a champion, but the kind of player whose greatness was buried inside everyone's hatred of him.

Only ten players in NHL history have won the Stanley Cup with three different franchises.

Claude Lemieux is one of them.

He won with the Montreal Canadiens in 1986, with the New Jersey Devils in 1995, and with the Colorado Avalanche in 1996.

That 1995 run with New Jersey still stands as one of the most dominant postseason performances in modern playoff history.

Lemieux scored 13 goals in 20 games and took home the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

He did it again five years later, adding a fourth championship ring with the Devils in 2000.

Four cups. Three teams. Eighty career playoff goals - ninth-most in NHL history.

The playoffs brought out a version of Lemieux that few could contain and fewer wanted to face.

No player generates those numbers by accident.

Claude Lemieux spent much of his career being called dirty, dangerous, and easy to despise.

None of that was wrong.

But what often got buried beneath the outrage was the fact that opposing teams despised him for a very specific reason - he made them lose.

The 1996 hit on Kris Draper became one of the NHL's most infamous moments and followed Lemieux everywhere.

It was real, and it was wrong.

But the NHL has had no shortage of rough players who never won anything.

None of that erases 297 regular-season games in an Avalanche uniform, four championship rings, or a playoff résumé that belongs in the conversation with anyone who ever laced them up.

Born in Buckingham, Quebec, Lemieux leaves behind his wife and four children.

The NHL Alumni Association has asked that the family's privacy be respected as memorial details are arranged. May he rest in peace.

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