Former NHLer Ron Duguay passes away at 69
One of the game’s most iconic figures has died.
On Thursday, it was announced that former NHLer Ron Duguay passed away at the age of 69 following a two-year cancer battle.
The news was broken by Duguay’s girlfriend, former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin.
While Duguay may not have had hall-of-fame numbers or Stanley Cup rings, his legacy will remain one of hockey’s first stars to transcend the game, diving into popular culture with the New York Rangers during the disco-crazed 1970s.
The Val Caron, Ont. native was drafted by the Rangers with the 13th overall pick of the 1977 NHL Draft, just a few months after winning a silver medal with Canada at the IIHF World Junior Championship. He immediately joined a strong team in New York that had the likes of Rod Gilbert, Phil Esposito and John Davidson. Duguay was a key part of the Rangers’ run to the Stanley Cup Final in 1979, where the Blueshirts fell to the Montreal Canadiens dynasty in five games.
While he might be well-known as a Ranger on the ice, spending parts of eight seasons with the Original Six franchise, Duguay’s reputation on the ice made him a household name. A frequent visitor to the famous Studio 54, the former Sudbury Wolves star fit right into NYC nightlife, with his long, curly hair making him a sort of sex symbol. He even had a brief fling with Cher in the later years of the decade. In 1980, Duguay was featured in legendary artist Andy Warhol’s “Athletes” portrait series, which included other famous athletes such as Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Duguay’s reputation in popular circles led him to meet filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who briefly considered casting the winger as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark before settling on Harrison Ford.
Duguay married California model Robin Bono in 1983, with the duo having two kids before later getting divorced.
Duguay’s professional career spanned four decades. He was traded to the Detroit Red Wings in 1983, giving him a chance to spend a few seasons with a young Steve Yzerman. He was later traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 1985-86 season, before being dealt back to the Rangers the following campaign. Duguay’s tenure in the NHL ended in 1988-89 with Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings, but he was far from hanging up his skates.
After one season with Mannheimer ERC in Germany, Duguay played two seasons with the San Diego Gulls, then in the International Hockey League. He stepped away from the game in 1992, but returned three years later to help the Gulls win the West Coast Hockey League’s Taylor Cup in 1995-96. He played a handful of games for the next several years, dressing for the ECHL’s Jacksonville Lizard Kings, the Atlantic Coast Hockey League’s Jacksonville Barracudas (whom he also served as head caoch), before rounding out his playing career in 2009 with the Brooklyn Aces and Jersey Rockhoppers of the short-lived Eastern Professional Hockey League, raising money for the Garden of Dreams Foundation.
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Across 12 seasons in the NHL, Duguay appeared in 864 regular-season games, scoring 274 goals and 346 assists for 620 points, with another 53 points in 89 postseason contests.
Duguay was also an analyst on Rangers broadcasts and other MSG Networks programming from 2007 to 2018.
Along with his experience at the World Juniors, Duguay also played for Canada at the 1981 Canada Cup, where the team ultimately lost to the Soviet Union in the final.
Duguay was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in 2024.
