Bob Gassoff
Robert Allen " Bob" Gassoff ( born April 17, 1953 in Quesnel, British Columbia, † May 27, 1977 ) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who in his playing days from 1971 to 1977 among others for the St. Louis Blues in the National Hockey League has played. His brother Brad was also a professional hockey player.
Career
Gassoff played during his junior time in the Western Canada Junior Hockey League with the Medicine Hat Tigers, among others, along with Lanny McDonald. In his second year he fell on mainly by his 388 penalty minutes - the most in the WCJHL and over 100 more than his persecutors, among those with Tiger Williams was also the subsequent penalty bench king of the NHL. In the NHL Amateur Draft 1973 secured the St. Louis Blues in the third round as 48th the rights to him. The World Hockey Association was interested in him. The Minnesota Fighting Saints chose him in the WHA Amateur Draft in the third round as the 33rd
In the senior level, he played first for the Denver Spurs in the Western Hockey League. Already in the 1973/74 season he made his debut with the St. Louis Blues and showed there hardness, was expected of him. His 306 penalty minutes in the 1975/76 season reached no other player in the blues. On Memorial Day weekend, some players the Blues met on the farm of Garry Unger. With some teammates Gassoff drove motorcycle and died in an accident. Gassoff was not wearing a helmet, was not an experienced motorcyclist and had probably been drinking alcohol. Gas offs widow Diane, who was pregnant at the time of the accident, sued Unger, his wife and the driver of the car, with which her husband had collided.
The Blues honored Gassoff by since not forgave his shirt number 3 again.