John Kordic
Date of birth | March 22, 1965 |
place of birth | Edmonton , Alberta , Canada |
date of death | August 8, 1992 |
Place of death | Quebec City , Quebec , Canada |
size | 188 cm |
Weight | 100 kg |
position | Right wing |
Shot hand | Right |
Draft | |
NHL Entry Draft |
1983 , 4th lap, 78th position Canadiens de Montréal |
Career stations | |
1982-1984 | Portland Winter Hawks |
1984-1985 | Seattle Breakers |
1985-1988 |
Canadiens de Montréal Canadiens de Sherbrooke |
1988-1991 | Toronto Maple Leafs |
1991 | Washington Capitals |
1991 | Nordiques de Québec |
1992 | Cape Breton Oilers |
John Nick Kordic (born March 22, 1965 in Edmonton , Alberta , † August 8, 1992 in Quebec City , Quebec ) was a Canadian ice hockey player . As a classic enforcer , the right winger completed 285 games for the Canadiens de Montréal , Toronto Maple Leafs , Washington Capitals and Nordiques de Québec in the National Hockey League . He won the Stanley Cup with the Canadiens in the 1986 playoffs . He died at the age of 27 after years of drug use .
Career
John Kordic played in his youth for the Edmonton Pats in his hometown, before moving to the Portland Winter Hawks in the Western Hockey League (WHL), the highest-ranking junior league in the region, for the 1982/83 season . With the Winter Hawks, he won the Memorial Cup in his first year as a host before he was selected in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft in 78th position by the Canadiens de Montréal . He then played for two more years in the youth field, where he moved to the Seattle Breakers in exchange for Jim Agnew during the 1984/85 season.
In 1985, Kordic made the leap into the professional field, where he was only converted into a winger and enforcer , so he had previously played in the junior field as a defender. With the Canadiens he won the Stanley Cup as a rookie in the 1986 playoffs at the end of his first season . At the same time, he was a regular member of their farm team , the Canadiens de Sherbrooke , in the American Hockey League (AHL) and won the 1985 AHL playoffs for the Calder Cup with the team . For the 1987/88 season, the Canadian established himself in Montréals NHL squad, but was given in the following year in November 1988, including a six- round vote in the NHL Entry Draft 1989 to the Toronto Maple Leafs . In return, the Canadiens received Russ Courtnall .
In the Maple Leafs jersey, Kordic was suspended for ten games in December 1988 after breaking Keith Acton's nose with a cross-check in a game against the Edmonton Oilers . In the 1989/90 season, the attacker placed second in the league with 252 penalty minutes behind Brian Curran , although he had only played 55 games. From Toronto he was sent in January 1991 with Paul Fenton to the Washington Capitals , which transferred a five-round right to vote for the 1991 NHL Entry Draft to the Maple Leafs. With the Capitals, he ended the season, but received no further contract, so he joined the Nordiques de Québec as a free agent in October 1991 . There the Canadian ran until December 1991, but subsequently switched to the Edmonton Oilers, who equipped him with an AHL contract and used until the end of the season with the Cape Breton Oilers .
In total, Kordic had completed 285 NHL games and recorded 42 scorer points and 1128 penalty minutes.
Circumstances of death
On the evening of August 8, 1992, Kordic rented a room at the Maxim motel in L'Ancienne-Lorette , Québec . In the course of the evening he was noticed there for his extremely aggressive behavior, for example he destroyed parts of his room furnishings and insulted the staff. When two police officers who had been summoned failed to calm Kordic down, he was overpowered and arrested after seven other officers arrived. Because of his agitated behavior, an ambulance was called to take him to Laval University hospital . On the way there he suffered cardiac arrest , as a result of which he was pronounced dead 30 minutes after arriving at the clinic, despite cardiopulmonary resuscitation . The autopsy listed acute heart failure as the cause of death. Kordic was buried in his native Edmonton.
After his death, it was revealed that Kordic had been using anabolic steroids ("anabolic steroids") for a long time to fulfill his role on the ice. At the time of his death, his body weight is said to have been over ten kilograms more than was officially listed at games. 40 syringes and about eight bottles of steroids were found in his hotel room, while various puncture sites were found in the autopsy. In addition, it was reported that the Canadian was addicted to cocaine and regularly consumed large amounts of alcohol , so that a combination of all three drugs was discussed by the police when he died. His cocaine and alcohol problems were known within the NHL, so he was encouraged by the Maple Leafs in the summer of 1990 to undergo therapy , while the Capitals had suspended him twice and referred him to a rehab clinic in Minnesota . Last but not least, his fiancée also reported on depressive episodes , especially after the death of his father in 1989.
His life is treated in the book "The John Kordic Story - The Fight of his Life" written by Mark Zwolinski.
Achievements and Awards
- 1983 Memorial Cup win with the Portland Winter Hawks
- 1985 WHL West Second All-Star Team
- 1985 Calder Cup win with the Canadiens de Sherbrooke
- 1986 Stanley Cup win with the Canadiens de Montréal
Career statistics
Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
season | team | league | Sp | T | V | Pt | +/- | SM | Sp | T | V | Pt | +/- | SM | ||
1982/83 | Portland Winter Hawks | WHL | 72 | 3 | 22nd | 25th | 235 | 14th | 1 | 6th | 7th | 30th | ||||
1983 | Portland Winter Hawks | Memorial Cup | 4th | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6th | |||||||||
1983/84 | Portland Winter Hawks | WHL | 67 | 9 | 50 | 59 | 232 | 14th | 0 | 13 | 13 | 56 | ||||
1984/85 | Portland Winter Hawks | WHL | 25th | 6th | 22nd | 28 | 73 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||
1984/85 | Seattle Breakers | WHL | 46 | 17th | 36 | 53 | 154 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||
1984/85 | Canadiens de Sherbrooke | AHL | 4th | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4th | 4th | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | ||||
1985/86 | Canadiens de Sherbrooke | AHL | 68 | 3 | 14th | 17th | 238 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||
1985/86 | Canadiens de Montréal | NHL | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | +1 | 12 | 18th | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 53 | ||
1986/87 | Canadiens de Sherbrooke | AHL | 10 | 4th | 4th | 8th | 49 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||
1986/87 | Canadiens de Montréal | NHL | 44 | 5 | 6th | 8th | –7 | 151 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 2 | +1 | 19th | ||
1987/88 | Canadiens de Montréal | NHL | 60 | 2 | 6th | 8th | ± 0 | 159 | 7th | 2 | 2 | 4th | +1 | 26th | ||
1988/89 | Canadiens de Montréal | NHL | 6th | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 13 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
1988/89 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 46 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -13 | 185 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
1989/90 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 55 | 9 | 4th | 13 | -8th | 252 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 33 | ||
1990/91 | Newmarket Saints | AHL | 8th | 1 | 1 | 2 | 79 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||
1990/91 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ± 0 | 9 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
1990/91 | Washington Capitals | NHL | 7th | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 101 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
1991/92 | Nordiques de Québec | NHL | 18th | 0 | 2 | 2 | -3 | 115 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
1991/92 | Cape Breton Oilers | AHL | 12 | 2 | 1 | 3 | ± 0 | 141 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -3 | 53 | ||
WHL overall | 210 | 35 | 130 | 165 | 694 | 28 | 1 | 19th | 20th | 86 | ||||||
AHL total | 102 | 10 | 20th | 30th | 511 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 64 | ||||||
NHL overall | 244 | 17th | 18th | 35 | -30 | 997 | 41 | 4th | 3 | 7th | -1 | 131 |
family
His brother Dan Kordic was also active in the NHL in the 1990s. His niece Nicole Gass is also an ice hockey player and represented Switzerland at the 2018 Winter Olympics .
Web links
- John Kordic in the database of the National Hockey League (English)
- John Kordic at eliteprospects.com (English)
- John Kordic at legendsofhockey.net (English)
- John Kordic at hockeydraftcentral.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Jon Scher: Death Of a Goon. si.com, August 24, 1992, accessed June 11, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Joe Lapointe: He Skated on the Ice, Then Fell Through It. Nytimes.com, August 17, 1992, accessed June 11, 2018 .
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Kordic, John |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kordic, John Nick (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian ice hockey player |
DATE OF BIRTH | March 22, 1965 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Edmonton , Alberta , Canada |
DATE OF DEATH | August 8, 1992 |
Place of death | Quebec City , Quebec , Canada |