The Golden Jet has died.
Hockey icon Bobby Hull was 84.
Known internationally for his Hall of Fame NHL career with the Chicago Blackhawks, Hull was also a star for the Winnipeg Jets of the upstart World Hockey Association — famously signing a million-dollar contract at Portage & Main in 1972.
In Winnipeg, Hull teamed up with Swedish players Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, forming The Hot Line — one of the most formidable lines in hockey in the 1970s — and led the Jets to a pair of AVCO Cups during his time in Winnipeg.
The first player in NHL history to score more than 50 goals in a single season, Hull set the record of 54 in 1966, breaking it by four goals only a couple of seasons later.
Along with Chicago teammate Stan Mikita, he’s credited with popularizing the curved hockey stick blade in the NHL.
Hull was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, and wasn’t the only member of his family to achieve hockey stardom — his brother Dennis played alongside him with the Blackhawks for eight seasons, and his son Brett is a Stanley Cup champion and Hall of Fame player in his own right.
Hull’s son Bart played for Saskatchewan and Ottawa in the Canadian Football League.
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Despite a lengthy list of individual and team awards and records — including a Stanley Cup championship in 1961, three Art Ross Trophies, and two Hart Memorial Trophies — Hull’s legacy is a controversial one.
He pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer in 1987, and was accused of abuse against two of his three wives, although assault and battery charges were dropped in the mid-1980s.
Hull also came under scrutiny in the mid-’90s after making pro-Nazi comments — which he later denied saying — in a Russian newspaper interview.
He served as an ambassador for the Blackhawks until the 2021-22 season, when the team cut ties with him.
Hull, whose number 9 banner hangs at Canada Life Centre, was inducted into the Winnipeg Jets Hall of Fame in 2016 along with Hedberg and Nilsson, although he didn’t return to Winnipeg for the ceremony.
With files from The Canadian Press
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