Gosselin reflects on his times with Guy Lafleur

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This article was published 28/04/2022 (1145 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

St. Pierre’s Richmond Gosselin, an iconic hockey player in his own right, is pausing to remember, like so many Canadians these days, the life of the legendary Montreal Canadiens superstar, Guy Lafleur, who passed away on Apr. 22 at the age of 70.

Lafleur was a few years older than Gosselin when Gosselin arrived at the Montreal Canadiens training camp in the fall of 1976.

Gosselin had just been drafted by the Canadiens in the 1976 NHL entry draft in the seventh round, 118^th overall. At only 5’8”, 150 lbs, Gosselin was a scoring machine in junior with the Flin Flon Bombers over two seasons in the mid-70’s.

He scored 114 goals in two seasons with the Bombers, including 67 goals in 69 games in his final year of junior in 1975-76, leading up to the draft. At the time the Bombers were playing in the Western Canada Hockey League.

It didn’t hurt either that Gosselin is also French Canadian as far as fitting into the hockey hotbed of Montreal. That was also the same time as the 1976 Canada Cup in which Lafleur was a key member of that team.

Gosselin spent 12 days at the Montreal Canadiens camp that year and although Lafleur was only in camp for a couple of those days because of the Canada Cup, Gosselin said, “it was pretty impressive, I was just a small kid from St. Malo skating with the likes of Guy Lafleur, who was one of my idols.”

In 1975-76, Lafleur was coming off one of his signature seasons, where he scored 56 goals and had 125 points.

Ultimately, Gosselin didn’t crack the Canadiens’ roster. As he has told the story over the years with one of his signature grins, “they decided to keep Lafleur that year instead of me as Guy was a little tougher.”

But talk about a tall task in trying to crack Montreal’s vaunted line-up during a time in the 1970’s when they won four straight Stanley Cups and seven Cups in all over a 10-year period.

Gosselin went on to play professional hockey in Europe for more than a decade, ultimately retiring in his early 30’s due to injuries.

Returning home, Gosselin later assisted Real Cure at Rat River Golf in staging the Rat River Classic, which featured over the years some of the Montreal Canadiens legends.

Greats such as Yvan Cournoyer, Gump Worsley, Henri Richard and Serge Savard were in St. Pierre over the years for those memorable events.

Gosselin says they tried to get Lafleur but it just ever worked out with his schedule.

But Gosselin did later cross paths with Guy Lafleur playing on a team of Montreal Canadiens Old-timers teams that made stops across the country. “Lafleur was in his 40’s but he was still a great player.”

“He was an ordinary guy,” added Gosselin, “just one of the guys on the team, the fans loved him wherever we went, he would also interact with them and sign any autographs.

Gosselin, who went on to become the first coach of the Steinbach Pistons and later coached in the first Allan Cup played in Steinbach, said all the tributes and recognition that Lafleur is receiving following his death are appropriate, and not surprising.