Shock as NHL Star Dies Suddenly at 47

Jeff GrossFormer NHL player Kyle Calder, 47, has died, his daughter wrote in an Instagram post. “Never in a million years would I have thought his day would come,” the post by Calder’s daughter, Madison, reads. The former forward was drafted in the fifth round of the 1997 NHL draft and played in the league from 1999 to 2010, spending six of those seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks. In that time, he appeared in 359 games, scoring 85 goals and 210 points. In a statement released by the NHL Alumni Association, Calder was honored as “not only a respected former NHL player but a cherished teammate, friend, and member of our hockey brotherhood.” Calder’s athletic career extended beyond the NHL; he won a silver medal against Russia with the 1999 Canadian World Junior Team, won a gold medal with the Canadian National Team at the 2003 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship, and placed fourth with the Canadian National Team in 2006. “Thank you for being my biggest fan,” Madison said in her post. “I know you’re skating around in heaven, cheering all of us on from above.” The announcement of his death came with a statement from the Los Angeles Jr. Kings, the team Calder coached, that their coach was dealing with “a brief illness,” but his cause of death is currently unknown.Read it at The Daily MailRead more at The Daily Beast.