Original Flyer John Hanna Passes Away

John 'Junior' Hanna - started his pro-hockey career in Philadelphia and for the Flyers in their first ever game.

SYDNEY - One of Nova Scotia's hockey legends has passed away. John 'Junior' Hanna of Sydney lost a long and courageous battle with cancer Sunday morning and with his family by his side passed away at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital. He was 70.

Hanna has long been considered one of the greatest hockey players to call Nova Scotia home. He was a member of a small fraternity from this province to play in the NHL during the Original Six days.

"When we were kids growing up playing hockey, John was an icon to us, especially in the Lebanese community," said Blair Joseph, a longtime friend and assistant coach with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. "Everybody knew his history as far as him starting late playing hockey. He never even put on skates until he was 13 and didn't go away until he was 18. For him to just jump on a train and go away to Montreal and try out for a hockey team and eventually end up playing in the Big Six was quite a thing."

Hanna played three seasons of junior in the Quebec Hockey League - two with Chicoutimi and one with Trois-Rivieres - before turning pro with the Providence Reds of the American Hockey League in 1957.

He was just 23 years old when he broke in to the NHL with the New York Rangers in 1958. He also played with the Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers during a pro playing career that spanned 17 seasons.

"He was a great person for the community, a great hockey man," said Joseph. "I went to visit him when he was in the hospital and one thing he said was he hoped he would feel good enough to go to another Eagles game. Once you're a hockey person, you're always a hockey person. He wanted to get out and enjoy one more hockey game."

Hanna turned to coaching during the 1973-74 season when he was player-coach for the Jacksonville Barons of the AHL. His pro coaching career spanned four seasons - three in the AHL and one in the Southern Hockey League.

When he returned home to Cape Breton, Hanna became very active in the local hockey community at both the coaching and administrative levels. He was still serving on the executive of the Nova Scotia Major Midget Hockey League at the time of his death.

"He had a big influence on me as a coach," said Paul Coleman, a close friend of Hanna's oldest son, John Jr., and former coach of the Cape Breton midget 'AAA' team. "He gave me a piece of advice when I started coaching the midget team. He said the biggest thing is to be accountable and walk in the rink through the front door and out through the front door. That's the way he did things. He was always accountable and always straightforward with everybody. That's what he taught to his players and the people around him."

Hanna's stellar hockey career earned him induction into both the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame and Cape Breton Sport Hall of Fame.

"There's an old saying: if you get a lot out of the game, it's great to make sure you give something back. John Hanna was a great example of that," said Joseph.

"He loved hockey and sports so much," said Coleman. "If you wanted to talk hockey, he had time for everybody. That's what he loved to do. It always brought a smile to his face and generally put a smile on the faces of the people he was speaking to."