Jacques Richard

Joseph Alfred Gilles Jacques Richard (October 7, 1952 – October 8, 2002) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who competed in the National Hockey League for the Atlanta Flames, Buffalo Sabres, and Quebec Nordiques. As a youth he played in the 1964 and 1965 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournaments with the Quebec Beavers minor ice hockey team. After an impressive junior career, Richard was considered a potential NHL superstar and was drafted second overall in the 1972 NHL Amateur Draft, slated to be the marquee player for the expansion Atlanta Flames.

He failed to live up to that promise. Apart from a single strong season late in his career, Richard had a largely mediocre professional run, with long stints in the minor leagues. He was troubled at times by serious injuries, including facial fractures in 1974–75 and a knee injury in 1979–80, and he also struggled with alcohol, gambling, and eventually cocaine.

Richard led a troubled life both during and after his playing days. In 1989, six years after retiring, he was arrested for attempting to smuggle cocaine. On October 8, 2002, the day after his fiftieth birthday, Richard died in a car accident while driving back from a party celebrating the occasion.