‘Highly-skilled’ d-man Kurvers dead at 58
VANCOUVER — Tom Kurvers had his moments.
He played for three of Canada’s NHL teams, including the 1986 Stanley Cup-winning Montreal Canadiens.
The former Vancouver Canucks’ defenceman, who died Monday at age 58 after a 2-1/2 year battle with inoperable lung cancer, also helped throw a scare into the vaunted Los Angeles Kings during a memorable 1991 first-round Stanley Cup playoff mismatch.
The Kings had amassed 37 more regular-season points than the Canucks and were expected to make short work of their Smythe Division rivals.
However, Kurvers struck for his second series goal in Game 6 — a sizzling shot past the glove of Kelly Hrudey — to draw the Canucks even at 1-1 before the high-octane Kings responded with a trio of third-period goals in a 4-1 triumph and a 4-2 series victory.
“I remember him as a highly skilled, puck moving defenceman that was extremely dangerous on the power play,” Hrudey recalled Monday of the well-travelled Minneapolis, Minn., native, who would play for seven NHL clubs and just one partial season for Vancouver.
The Canucks went 28-43-9 that season and also went through a significant roster remake during the crazy campaign, especially with
their own version of March Madness. After Kurvers arrived in a Jan. 13 swap with the Toronto Maple Leafs for forward Brian Bradley, the Canucks landed Cliff Ronning, Geoff Courtnall, Sergio Momesso, Robert Dirk and a fifth-round pick from the St. Louis Blues for Garth Butcher and Dan Quinn.
And while Ronning would play just 11 regular-season games with Kurvers, and
six more in the post-season, his lasting memory is just as much about the man as the player.
“Tom was really a gentleman,” Ronning said Monday. “He would always stop to talk to people and he always remembered their names. Just very personable and a good honest guy. He was very businesslike in his approach to the game and he definitely took it seriously. That’s just the way he was and why he was successful.
“He had a great shot from the point and was just a very smart and heads-up, all around defenceman who lived a very clean life. He was a guy who would always hit the net, and with a lot of defencemen, that was 50-50. But for him it was always on the net and guys would go there because of that.
“It’s sad that he’s gone because he was young.”
Kurvers was very fit and didn’t smoke. He was in an oral chemotherapy treatment for his lung cancer that was showing signs of success until a year ago. He’s survived by his wife, Heather, and four children.
Kurvers had won acclaim for being a three-sport high school star in Minnesota and was awarded the 1984 Hobey Baker Award with the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs as the top NCAA Div. 1 player.
His 421 NHL points (93328), including 27 points with the Canucks (4-23) in 32 games, were often overshadowed by his challenges to defend and he would play out his option with the Canucks. However, there was no doubting the ability of a 1981 seventh-round draft choice by Montreal, who put up 30 points (7-23) in 62 games as the Canadiens won the Cup in 1986, who would carve out a career on-and-off the ice.
“My timing in hockey was great,” Kurvers told the late Ian MacDonald in a Montreal Gazette Where Are They Now feature in 2011. “I was fortunate enough to be drafted by Montreal and we won a championship … I can still look back at that time and see how when things are done right, you have a chance to win. When they are not done right, you don’t have a chance to succeed in the NHL.”
Kurvers also served as assistant general manager of the Minnesota Wild and the Tampa Bay Lightning, and as the director of player personnel for the Phoenix Coyotes.