Mike McMahon, a longtime defenseman who was a member of the inaugural Minnesota North Stars team in 1967 and logged more than 500 games in the top professional hockey leagues of his time, has died.
Mike McMahon's NHL and WHA career spanned from the early 1960s into the mid-1970s. He broke in with the New York Rangers and played with the North Stars during the franchise's first two seasons, before bouncing around the NHL and then skating three seasons with the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA in the early 1970s.
McMahon died Monday in St. Paul following heart problems. He was 71 years old.
The native of Quebec City who grew up across from Buffalo in Fort Erie, Ont., played 224 games in the NHL and another 279 in the rival WHA. He finished with a combined 44 goals, 169 assists and 420 penalty minutes.
His most productive season was 1967-68 with the North Stars, when he tallied 14 goals and 33 assists in the regular season and another three goals and seven assists in 14 postseason games.
It was a season of tremendous highs marked by comedy but also tragedy for McMahon and his teammates. The team finished a mediocre 27-32-15 but came within a goal of reaching the Stanley Cup Finals. On Jan. 13, teammate Bill Masterton fell on the ice during a game, lost consciousness and died about 30 hours later. He remains the only player in NHL history to die from on-ice injuries.
On Jan. 16, the NHL All-Star Game went on as planned, despite the North Stars' request to delay it. On Jan. 17, the North Stars' season resumed in St. Louis, the same day as Masterton's funeral in the Twin Cities.
"Nobody wanted to play, but they made us play," McMahon recalled in a later interview.
