Guy Chouinard obit

Death of the legendary Guy Chouinard

By Jean Carrier, Le Soleil and Mikaël Lalancette, Le Soleil 

He was not on the list.

A legend of Quebec junior hockey has passed away in the last few hours. Guy Chouinard, former number 7 and the first head coach in the history of the second generation of the Quebec Remparts, died at the age of 69.

A Canadian professional ice hockey player who played in the 1970s and '80s for the Atlanta Flames, Calgary Flames, and St. Louis Blues. He also had a lengthy career as a coach in the QMJHL following his retiring as a player. He was supplementally the head coach in Quebec's college hockey league with the Champlain-St. Lawrence Lions in Quebec City.

As a youth, Chouinard played in four consecutive Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournaments from 1966 to 1969, with the Quebec Citadelles and Quebec Beavers minor ice hockey teams from Quebec City.

Chouinard was selected by the Atlanta Flames with the 28th overall pick in the 1974 NHL Entry Draft, following a successful junior career with the Quebec Remparts in which he was a regular at the age of 15. He was one of the first underage players available in the entry draft after the National Hockey League's decision allowing the drafting of underage players. While playing with Atlanta, he set records for scoring goals in six consecutive games from November 14 to November 24, 1978; he was the first Flame to score 50 goals in a season in the 1978–79 season. Chouinard scored the final goal in Atlanta Flames history during the 1979-80 NHL playoffs in a 5-2 home team loss against the New York Rangers. He remained with the team when it relocated to Calgary for the 1980–81 season. He left the Flames franchise as its all-time leader in points (529) and assists (336) (records since broken) on September 6, 1983, when he was traded to the St. Louis Blues for future considerations.

After playing in the first nine games of the 1984-85 season in the International Hockey League with Peoria, Chouinard opted to retire.

Chouinard also had a long career coaching in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, notably for the Victoriaville Tigres, Quebec Remparts, and Prince Edward Island Rocket and was enshrined in the QMJHL Hall of Fame in 2005. He has coached the second most games in the QMJHL (988), most wins as a coach (515) and most championships as a coach (4).

 

From 2002 to 2006, he coached in the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey, a minor professional league in Quebec, first with the Trois-Rivieres Vikings, then the Thetford-Mines Prolab. He was fired as the Prolab head-coach on January 13, 2006, after a 7–3 loss against the Saint-Hyacinthe Cristal. With the Prolab, his record was 45 wins and 48 loss (including 10 shootout loss and 2 losses in overtime).

 

Chouinard was hired by the QMJHL's Prince Edward Island Rocket to replace Yanick Jean as head coach, on October 22, 2007. He was relieved of his duties on October 6, 2009.

Chouinard was nicknamed "Gramps" because he appeared much older than he really was. He was not the only member of his family to play professional hockey; he was the older brother of former minor-leaguer Jean Chouinard and the father of Eric Chouinard. His nephew, Marc Chouinard, played in the NHL for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Regular season                        Playoffs

Season Team   League GP       G         A         Pts       PIM     GP       G         A         Pts       PIM

1971–72          Quebec Remparts        QMJHL           58        29        41        70        6          —        —        —            —        —

1972–73          Quebec Remparts        QMJHL           59        43        86        129      11        —        —        —            —        —

1973–74          Quebec Remparts        QMJHL           62        75        85        160      22        4          0          1            1          0

1974–75          Atlanta Flames            NHL    5          0          0          0          2          —        —        —        —            —

1974–75          Omaha Knights           CHL    70        28        40        68        6          6          1          6          7            0

1975–76          Nova Scotia Voyageurs           AHL    70        40        40        80        14        9          6          9            15        0

1975–76          Atlanta Flames            NHL    4          0          2          2          2          2          0          0          0            0

1976–77          Atlanta Flames            NHL    80        17        33        50        8          3          2          0          2            0

1977–78          Atlanta Flames            NHL    73        28        30        58        8          2          1          0          1            0

1978–79          Atlanta Flames            NHL    80        50        57        107      14        2          1          2          3            0

1979–80          Atlanta Flames            NHL    76        31        46        77        22        4          1          3          4            4

1980–81          Calgary Flames           NHL    52        31        52        83        24        16        3          14        17            4

1981–82          Calgary Flames           NHL    64        23        57        80        12        3          0          1          1            0

1982–83          Calgary Flames           NHL    80        13        59        72        18        9          1          6          7            4

1983–84          St. Louis Blues            NHL    64        12        34        46        10        5          0          2          2            0

1984–85          Peoria Rivermen         IHL     9          2          5          7          0          —        —        —        —            —

NHL totals       578      205      370      575      120      46        9          28        37        12