André Lacroix

André Lacroix was born on 5 June 1945 in Lauzon, Quebec, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River opposite Quebec City. Lauzon later became part of the city of Lévis. He was the youngest of 14 children, seven boys and seven girls, of Alfred and Albéa Lacroix, and grew up in what he called a big Catholic family; the family attended St. Joseph church in Lauzon. He was the only one of the children to skate.

He learned the game outdoors. He later explained that in Quebec the first snow of November always melted, but the second snowfall meant the ponds would soon freeze and the real hockey season could begin. He did not play in an indoor rink until he was 13. At 13 he joined midget hockey and won three championships. His older sister Hélène, born in 1940 and working for an insurance company in Quebec City, bought him books of ferry tickets so that he could cross from Lévis to Quebec City for junior hockey without his parents having to pay. He credited his parents as the greatest influence on how he conducted himself on and off the ice.

Lacroix's formal schooling has not been detailed in published sources. His hockey education came in junior. He played for the Quebec Citadelles, scoring 95 points in 50 games in 1962-63, and for the Montreal Junior Canadiens in 1963-64. He then moved to the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey Association, where he led the league in assists in both 1964-65 and 1965-66 and in points in 1965-66 with 120. He won the Red Tilson Trophy as the league's most outstanding player in both seasons and the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy as scoring champion in 1966. In 1966 he also played for a Canadian junior team, alongside a young Bobby Orr, in an exhibition game against the Soviet Union, scoring a goal and an assist in a 4-3 defeat.

Lacroix turned professional with the Quebec Aces of the American Hockey League. When the expansion Philadelphia Flyers bought the Aces in 1967 they acquired his rights, and during the 1967-68 season, while he was leading the AHL in scoring, they recalled him. He scored 14 points in 18 games to finish that season and then led the Flyers in scoring in 1968-69 and 1969-70, playing on a line with fellow former Aces Jean-Guy Gendron and Simon Nolet. After a third straight 20-goal season he was traded to the Chicago Black Hawks in 1971 and struggled there.

The World Hockey Association offered a new start. The Quebec Nordiques claimed his rights in February 1972, but he would not take a discount to play at home, and his rights went to the franchise that became the Philadelphia Blazers. In 1972-73 he scored 50 goals and 124 points to win the first WHA scoring title. When the Blazers moved to Vancouver he refused to relocate and was traded to the New York Golden Blades. The team defaulted on payments and in November 1973 was moved to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, as the Jersey Knights, where he still led the league with 80 assists. The franchise then became the San Diego Mariners.

In San Diego in 1974-75 he had 41 goals, 106 assists and 147 points, winning his second scoring title, and recorded a point in 32 consecutive games between 4 January and 19 March 1975. He topped 100 points again in 1975-76 and 1976-77, then had 113 points with the Houston Aeros in 1977-78 and 88 points with the New England Whalers in 1978-79. When the Whalers entered the NHL as the Hartford Whalers he played 29 more games, then announced his retirement on 20 December 1979, aged 34.

Internationally, he played for Canada in the 1974 Summit Series against the Soviet Union, recording one goal and six assists in eight games. His goal was the winner in Game 2 at Maple Leaf Gardens, Canada's only win of the series.

After retiring he worked in the Whalers front office and then as colour commentator on the team's radio broadcasts on WTIC with Chuck Kaiton for several seasons. He later created the André Lacroix Power Hockey Academy, was director of hockey programmes at the Oakland Ice Center in California until 2005, was an assistant coach at Trinity College in Connecticut, directed hockey at The Pond rink in Auburn Township, Ohio, coached youth hockey in the Cleveland area and on 28 May 2014 was named head coach of University School in Ohio.

Lacroix was the youngest of 14 children of Alfred and Albéa Lacroix. He was especially close to his sister Hélène, who supported his early career, and his brother Jacques, who became a Catholic priest and did volunteer work in Haiti. Lacroix remained a practising Catholic and said he attended Mass as often as his schedule allowed.

He had two children, André Jr. and Chantal, both of whom played youth hockey at Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford, Connecticut. In later life he lived in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, near his son, while his daughter lived in North Carolina. He was the grandfather of seven, several of whom played hockey. He stayed in touch with friends and fans in every city where he played and regularly returned to Hartford for Whalers alumni events and to Quebec to visit the arena that bore his name. His wife has not been named in the sources consulted.

Lacroix was outspoken about the place of the WHA in hockey history. He argued that the league did a great deal for the sport by raising player salaries and opening doors for players, coaches and managers who had been shut out of the NHL. He believed that he, Marc Tardif and Jean-Claude Tremblay had been kept out of the Hockey Hall of Fame only because they played in the WHA.

He disliked the film Slap Shot, saying he refused to watch it on release because he felt it showed hockey in a bad light. As a youth coach he never named captains, believing that all of his players had leadership qualities, and he was proud that a dozen of his former players went on to captain their high school teams. When writing his memoir he said he did not want to write a sensational book in the style of Ball Four, but an honest account of his life behind the numbers.

Lacroix is the all-time leader of the World Hockey Association in games played (551), assists (547) and points (798), and fourth in goals (251). He is the only player in WHA history with six 100-point seasons, and his 106 assists in 1974-75 set a professional record that stood until Wayne Gretzky surpassed it. As of the mid-2020s only Bobby Orr, Lacroix, Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid had recorded 100 assists in a season. He is often described as one of the best players in WHA history and one of the most underrated players of his era.

The arena in his hometown of Lauzon, in Lévis, is named the Aréna André-Lacroix. It reopened after a renovation costing about 3.6 million dollars in September 2026, with a space dedicated to his career. In Hartford, Philadelphia, San Diego and Quebec he remained a fan favourite decades after he retired.

Red Tilson Trophy (OHA most outstanding player), 1965 and 1966 with the Peterborough Petes. Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy (OHA scoring champion), 1966. W. D. (Bill) Hunter Trophy as WHA scoring champion, 1972-73 with the Philadelphia Blazers and 1974-75 with the San Diego Mariners. WHA First Team All-Star, 1973, 1974 and 1975. Named French-Canadian athlete of the year after the 1974-75 season, according to the Pro Hockey Alumni. Inaugural inductee, World Hockey Association Hall of Fame, 2010. Prix Jacques-Amyot from the Société d'histoire du sport de la Capitale-Nationale, 2019. Aréna André-Lacroix in Lauzon, Lévis, named in his honour.

In April 2020 Lacroix self-published his autobiography, After the Second Snowfall: My Life On and Off the Ice. He wrote it with the help of a local writer who visited his home weekly, and included details of every contract he negotiated, since he acted as his own agent throughout his career. He promoted the book through many radio programmes and podcasts, including episodes of the Pro Hockey Alumni podcast. He was also interviewed for The New York Times in 2012 about the New York Golden Blades, recalling that the team once asked him to pose naked for a magazine promotion, which he declined.

Lacroix's time with the Whalers ended on difficult terms. He felt the team mishandled his final season as a player, and his candid radio commentary on how the Whalers were playing upset some players and management, ending his partnership with broadcaster Chuck Kaiton. He also refused a move to Vancouver in 1973, which led the Blazers to trade him. He attributed his difficulty in finding professional coaching jobs to never having an agent and to his independent streak.

André Lacroix died in October 2026 at the age of 81. His death was announced on Tuesday 27 October 2026 by the Société d'histoire du sport de la Capitale-Nationale on social media, and reported by TVA Nouvelles, Le Journal de Montréal, Le Journal de Québec and Le Soleil, which said he had died within the previous hours. The exact date, place and cause of death had not been made public at the time of writing. He had been living in the Cleveland area of Ohio. Funeral arrangements had not been announced.