Former Toronto Maple Leaf Borje Salming waves to the crowd during a pregame ceremony in Toronto on Nov. 11. The Canadian Press
Borge Salming, a man whose hockey career will be remembered for class, courage, skill and grit, died in Sweden on Thursday at the age of 71, five months after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
A first for his fellow Swedes and other European players who followed him in the NHL, Salming was the first Swede to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996. He played for the Maple Leafs for 16 seasons beginning in 1973, and to the Detroit Red Wings for a year after that.
The greatest defenseman to ever wear a Toronto jersey, he holds half a dozen team records and was a six-time All-Star during his career.
Despite the fact that he had a terminal illness, Salming’s death came as a surprise as he had traveled to Toronto less than two weeks before the annual Hockey Hall of Fame induction game. He received a standing ovation when he was introduced before the Maple Leafs’ meeting with the Penguins on Nov. 11, and the following night was the subject of a lengthy pregame stand at Scotiabank Arena.
Known as The King, Salming was a great Maple Leaf in an era when the team wasn’t very good. JOHN McNEIL/The Globe and Mail
Salming’s dear friend and former teammate, Daryl Sitler, accompanied him onto the ice and helped him raise one arm to acknowledge the cheers that were pouring in. Tears flowed down the stands and from Salming’s eyes.
“You don’t have a soul if you haven’t been touched by this,” Elliott Friedman, the Sportsnet hockey reporter and NHL insider, said Thursday.
On November 14, three Swedes – Daniel Alfredsson and Daniel and Henrik Sedin – were ushered in while Salming and his family watched from an adjoining room.
On a night honoring Borge Salming, the Leafs great gets his own Lou Gehrig moment
“He loved Hall of Fame weekend and wanted to be there,” Friedman said. “The Hall of Famers told him he shouldn’t do anything he didn’t want to do, but he was involved in almost everything. It was very meaningful to him.
In February, Salming began experiencing unusual muscle twitching. In mid-July, he was diagnosed with ALS, a progressive disease of the nervous system. He revealed the diagnosis through the Maple Leafs organization on Aug. 10 and said in October that his condition had deteriorated to the point where he had lost the ability to speak and was relying on a feeding tube.
His death was announced jointly by his family and the Maple Leafs.
“Borje was a pioneer of the game and an icon with an indomitable spirit and undeniable toughness,” Maple Leafs team president Brendan Shanahan said in a statement. “He defined himself by his play on the ice and by his contributions to the community.”
Salming was a pioneer for other Swedes and other European players who followed him in the NHL.STF/The Canadian Press
Toronto players were informed of Salming’s death during a team meeting before practice in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Maple Leafs play the Minnesota Wild on Friday afternoon.
“It’s hard to process,” said William Nylander, Toronto’s Canadian-born Swedish right winger. “It really surprised me. We saw it a few weeks ago. It’s very upsetting.”
On the night of November 12, Nylander participated in a ceremonial puck drop with Oliver Ekman-Larsson of the Vancouver Canucks. Salming dropped the puck between them, and then Nylander picked it up, handed it to him, and gave him a gentle hug.
Tonight, the Maple Leafs starting lineup was made up of six Swedish players for the first time in franchise history.
“It’s really sad news,” said Erik Kahlgren, a Swede who was in net for Toronto against Vancouver. “I’m glad the organization had the time to bring him to Toronto and show how much they value him. My condolences to his family and everyone close to him.”
Salming signed as a free agent with Toronto in the summer of 1973. Although he had been a star in the Swedish major league years before, he was expected to be soft-spoken, a prejudice usually held against players from Europe. He took some beating in his first year, but gave as many penalties as he got and changed the perception of foreign players.
Maple Leafs great Paul Henderson, who was an 11-year NHL veteran when Salming arrived in Toronto, remembers the then-22-year-old as a physical specimen.
“He had the best body I’ve ever seen,” Henderson said. “He had five percent body fat and I thought, ‘Who is this guy?’
“He did everything well. He was really impressive.”
Salming holds almost every franchise record for a Maple Leafs defenseman. Gary Hershorn/The Canadian Press
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman also offered a glowing tribute. He called Salming “a towering presence and a transformative figure in league history.”
“Borje Salming was as physically and mentally tough as he was skillfully gifted,” Bettman said in a statement. “He blazed a trail that many of the greatest players in NHL history have followed, while shattering all the European stereotypes that prevailed in a league populated almost entirely by North Americans before his arrival.”
Salming holds nearly every franchise record for a Maple Leafs defenseman – including goals (148), assists (620) and points (768). He played in 1,229 NHL games, including the regular season and playoffs, and had his No. 21 jersey retired and raised to the rafters in 2006.
Known as The King, he was a great Maple Leaf in an era when the team wasn’t very good. God, he was tough. Once his face was cut open by a skate blade and the wound required 300 stitches. His face looked like a streetcar map of downtown Toronto.
Ron McLean, the sports commentator for the CBC, best known as host of the Hockey night in Canadarecalls how enamored the Canadiens were with Salming when he hit the NHL.
“The league was so homogenous and he was mysterious,” McLean said. “Everything around him shocked us. His big slap, his elegant skating … he had not only taken over our sport, he had mastered it.”
McLean won’t forget the nights of November 11 and 12, when Salming came home to Toronto for the last time.
“Those two nights were magical,” McLean said. “To see the love in his eyes that he gave his captain, Daryl Sitler, said it all.”
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