OHL mourns the loss of Gerry Meehan

The Ontario Hockey League mourns the passing of Gerry Meehan, a Memorial Cup champion with the 1967 Toronto Marlboros, who died June 5 at the age of 79.

Born in Toronto and raised in Newmarket, Ont., Meehan spent parts of five seasons in the OHA’s junior ranks between 1962 and 1967. He suited up for the Toronto Neil McNeil Maroons before joining the Toronto Marlboros, where he developed into one of the era’s most reliable two-way centres. He captained the Marlboros to the 1967 Memorial Cup as national junior champions — scoring the Cup-clinching goal in the final — and earned OHA Junior A First All-Star Team honours that same season.

Meehan, drafted 21st overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1963, went on to a decade-long National Hockey League playing career. After breaking in with the Leafs and a brief stop in Philadelphia, he was claimed by the expansion Buffalo Sabres in 1970 and recorded the first assist in franchise history in the club’s inaugural game. He later served as Sabres captain and posted a 24-goal, 55-point season in 1970–71. His career also included stops with Vancouver, Atlanta and Washington, where he set a personal best with 64 points in 1976–77.

It was in the front office, however, that Meehan left perhaps his greatest mark. After earning a law degree in Buffalo, he joined the Sabres’ management ranks and rose to general manager, a role in which he acquired or drafted future Hall of Famers Dominik Hasek, Pat LaFontaine, Alexander Mogilny and Dale Hawerchuk, and famously helped orchestrate Mogilny’s 1989 departure from the Soviet Union. He was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame in 2023.

The OHL extends its deepest condolences to Meehan’s wife, Mirella, his children and grandchildren, and to the entire hockey community in Buffalo and beyond.