Over the weekend, the Avalanche lost a major member of its family to his battle with cancer. With great sorrow, we have to say goodbye to our favorite Avs fan and TV analyst, Peter McNab.
Peter McNab, Maxy, as he was often called, started broadcasting for the Avalanche during their inaugural season in 1995 and has been with the Avs ever since. He is literally the Avalanche's voice; he was like the Grandfather of the Colorado Avalanche, the person you turned to for comfort during the hard times, and was there to celebrate the victories. McNab understood the Avalanche better than anyone and knew even more about hockey. If Peter McNab said it was a good or bad call, he was right. He was fair, kind, and inspiring. He will be missed forever.
Before McNab entered his 27-year profession with the Avalanche, he had a vibrant career as an NHL player. He was born into a hockey family outside of Vancouver in 1952. His father, Max McNab, won the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 1950 and relocated his family to San Diego as a coach for a minor league hockey team. His father gave the 14-year-old McNab a choice to return to Canada and live with his grandparents for the sake of his hockey career; that would be over if he said in Southern California. But it was the 60s and San Diego. What teenager would want to return to Chilliwack, B.C., and live with his grandparents? He stayed in San Diego, played hockey as best he could, and started playing baseball, a much more accessible So Cal sport.
He attended the University of Denver on a baseball scholarship and also made the hockey team. He was drafted by the Buffalo Sabers in 1972 while playing forward for the Denver Pioneers. He made his NHL debut in 1973 against the Minnesota North Stars and helped his team to the Stanley Cup Final in 1975. The following season he was traded to the Boston Bruins, where he played some of his best hockey for eight seasons in Beantown. Don Cherry, who was then the Bruins coach, called McNab “A Golden Lab on a team of Bull Terriers.” McNab is still ranked in the top ten of all-time goals and points for the Bruins.
He was traded to the Vancouver Cuncuks in 1984 and then signed with the New Jersey Devils, where his father was the general manager, and he ended his playing career in 1987. He played in 955 games, scored 363 goals, and is ranked 14th all-time in goals by an American player. Following his retirement, he began his broadcasting career with his former club, the New Jersey Devils, in 1987. He worked as their color analyst for eight years before he moved to Colorado for their inaugural season.
In 2021 he was diagnosed with cancer, but he continued to work through his chemotherapy and announced in February 2022 that the cancer was in remission. McNab had started the season with the Avs, but his health quickly declined, and he had been absent from broadcasts for the past couple of weeks. While the team was traveling back from Finland, and their wifi signal came in over the Atlantic, the news was shared with the team of McNab’s passing.
The Avalanche’s first game back will be on Thursday, with an enormous void in the Avalanche family. As his fellow colleague of two decades, Mark Moser said, “And no matter what we do from this point on, I’ll look over, and he won’t be there. And there’s going to be a massive hole in my heart and a massive hole in my life.” Peter McNab will never be replaced. He will be remembered and honored as the heart of the Avalanche, and his name belongs in the rafters of Ball Arean. While he never won the Stanley Cup as a player, he won it three times as an Av: in his first year and, more notably, in his last. Avalanche games will never sound the same without him.
Fuck cancer.
Here is to celebrating the extraordinary life of Peter McNab in life, laughter, and with another Stanley Cup.