Two-time Stanley Cup champion Ed Van Impe passes away

An original Philadelphia Flyer has passed away.

On Thursday, the team announced that former Flyers captain Ed Van Impe had died. He was 84 years old.

“The Flyers mourn the loss of a leader and original Philadelphia Flyer in Ed Van Impe,” the team said in a post on social media. “We offer our deepest condolences to his teammates, who had the privilege to play beside him, and his family and friends who were close to him during this difficult time.”

Van Impe began his NHL career with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1966 but was picked up by the Flyers in the league’s expansion draft the following year. The rugged defenseman was the team’s third pick behind Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Bernie Parent and Doug Favell.

He quickly became one of the team’s most important players. While he wasn’t known for his scoring ability, the Saskatoon native was a feared checker who was reliable in his own zone. Van Impe served as the team’s captain for five seasons before handing the ‘C’ over to a budding star named Bobby Clarke.

A leader on the Broad Street Bullies, Van Impe and company won the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975, the first expansion team to lift Lord Stanley.

Van Impe’s physical play was placed in the annals of history one fateful night at the old Spectrum in January 1976. In an exhibition game against the Soviet Union’s Central Red Army squad, the Flyers used their brute force to intimidate some of the best players in the world. Shortly after exiting the penalty box for a previous infraction, Van Impe delivered a crushing blow to Soviet star Valerik Kharlamov, knocking him flat to the ice.

The hit then spurned a protest for the Red Army, leading to the team leaving the ice, refusing to play the rest of the game. After tensions cooled and the Soviets were threatened with not being paid for their appearance, the game resumed, with the Flyers winning 4-1.

It wasn’t long after that game that Van Impe was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he would end his NHL career, retiring at the end of the 1976-77 season.