OTTAWA – Senators assistant coach Mark Reeds has died. He was 55.
The team announced he had cancer in March of 2014, and head coach Dave Cameron repeatedly asked for people to keep Reeds and his family in their thoughts.
“We lost a good man today,” said general manager Bryan Murray, who was diagnosed with cancer last summer. “A very important member of our coaching staff and of our Senator family.”
The Senators open the playoffs Wednesday night at the Montreal Canadiens. Murray said young players were grieving greatly Tuesday morning.
“It’s supposed to be an exciting time and will be,” Murray said. “But today it’s very difficult for all of us.”
Reeds had been an assistant in Ottawa since 2011 and before that coached the Owen Sound Attack to an Ontario Hockey League title.
“It is with very heavy hearts that all of us within the Senators family remember Mark who was truly a wonderful father, husband, player, coach and friend,” owner Eugene Melnyk said in a statement. “Mark’s charismatic fighting spirit was present right until the end. We are all better for having had the opportunity to work so closely with Mark whose passion for life, hockey and his family will leave an indelible mark on our organization.”
A Toronto native, Reeds was a fifth-round pick of St. Louis in 1979 and played 365 NHL games for the Blues and Hartford Whalers.
“Lost a great hockey man today,” Senators broadcaster Dean Brown wrote on Twitter. “Great coach, Great guy I hate cancer.”
As friends and colleagues learned of his death, there was an outpouring of condolences on social media. Owen Sound athletic therapist Andy Brown called Reeds “a special and unique man,” and former NHL player Jamie Rivers said Reeds was “a great coach and great motivator. He always looked at life as an adventure.”
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