John Garrett Dies at 74 During Cbc Hockey NHL Assignment
cbc hockey analyst John Garrett was discovered Monday afternoon in his hotel room in Salt Lake City while working the first-round NHL playoff series between the Utah Mammoth and Vegas Golden Knights. He was 74.
Garrett and Salt Lake City
Garrett had moved to a less hectic national schedule for Sportsnet from Canuck regional broadcasts three years ago, but he remained one of the most familiar voices to generations of Vancouver viewers. His death lands in the middle of a playoff assignment that had taken him from that long-running local role back into a national broadcast setting.
He was born in Trenton, Ont., in 1951 and grew up as one of seven children raised by John and Marvel Garrett in Glen Miller. Garrett became a star goaltender in junior with the Peterborough Petes, was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in 1971 and began his career in the World Hockey Association two years later.
Shorthouse and Shannon
Garrett’s working life also carried a rare kind of loyalty. John Shorthouse said Garrett lost his temper only twice during their time together, including once in Columbus after the Sportsnet crew waited a long time for a restaurant table and then for a server who said the kitchen was closed. The other came in a Philadelphia emergency room in 2015, when Shorthouse was in a really bad situation and not getting tended to.
“And the second time I saw him lose it — and I’ve never been more proud and more thankful for any person in my life — was when I was in a really bad situation in an emergency room in Philadelphia,” Shorthouse said. “I wasn’t getting tended to and was not in good shape, and he finally lost it and went full Papa Bear on the staff in order to get me treated. I’ll never forget that.” Shorthouse added, “To me, that spoke to his unfailing and unshakeable capacity to be the perfect teammate.”
Greg Shannon called him “the most humble person I’ve ever met,” adding, “John was every guy” and “There’s no bad John Garrett stories.” Garrett played 207 NHL games, appeared at the 1983 NHL All-Star Game in Uniondale, N.Y., and leaves behind his wife, Sharon, daughters Krista and Sarah, and grandchildren.
For Canucks fans and the broadcast group around him, the loss reaches beyond a season assignment. Garrett had spent decades in front of viewers, and the people who worked with him are left with the same profile they described on Tuesday: a broadcaster who could fit in anywhere, and a teammate who put everyone ahead of himself.
