Blair Barnes

Blair Barnes played just one NHL game, but he made history by doing so.

Barnes played with the Los Angeles Kings in 6-5 loss to Montreal on March 22nd, 1983. By appearing in the game, he became the first last-overall draft pick to ever play in a National Hockey League game.

Barnes was the 126th overall pick by the Edmonton Oilers in the 1979 NHL draft. Barnes was a right winger with the Windsor Spitfires from 1977-1980. He scored 127 goals and 169 assists for 296 points in 198 games, which ranked him as the second highest scoring Spitfires player of all time.

Barnes turned pro in 1980-81 and played two seasons in the minor leagues with Wichita of the Central Hockey League.

In the summer of 1982 he was traded to Los Angeles Kings organization in exchange for Paul Mulvey. He would only play two more pro seasons before retiring from hockey for good in 1984.

Barnes settled in Chicago after hockey and worked for a brewery. He passed away from a heart attack in 2010. He was just 49 years old.

Other Hockey Deaths

Bob Probert's death overshadowed a couple of other deaths last week.

Igor Misko, a 23 year old forward with Evgeny Nabokov's new team SKA St. Petersburg (KHL), had a heart attack while driving a car. The cause of death was ruled to be the heart failure, but the resulting accident injured other motorists.

John Hutchings, a Memorial Cup champion with Oshawa in 1983 and New Jersey Devils draft pick (148th overall, 1982), died in England. He was 46. At one time he was a very promising prospect, but he missed an entire season (1980-81) after badly breaking his leg after getting run over by a tractor. The defenseman shifted to forward and played in Britain where he continued to live. He was buried in Cobourg, Ontario.

Update: Blair Barnes, the Windsor Spitfires second all time leading scorer, died of a heart attack, too. The Windsor native played one game with the Los Angeles Kings in 1982-83 season.