Hall of Famer Drake dies at 89

Clare Drake, the winningest coach in Canadian college hockey history and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, died Sunday. He was 89.
Drake was coach of the University of Alberta for 28 years before leaving in 1989, finishing with 697 victories and six University Cup championships. He also coached the Edmonton Oilers during the 1975-76 World Hockey Association season, was co-coach of Canada at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics and was a Winnipeg Jets assistant in 1989-90.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November.
Drake was considered a mentor to many current and former NHL coaches, including Mike Babcock (Toronto Maple Leafs), Barry Trotz (Washington Capitals) and Bill Peters (Calgary Flames).
"Clare was one of those iconic coaches when I was growing up that won at every level, but to me he was a teacher of the game," Trotz said. "If you were an opponent or you were a young kid, who I was over the time, he was a guy that would try to teach and show and he didn't care if you were the opponent. And he developed a lot of great young men who became coaches and a lot of great players and an outstanding winning tradition at Alberta."

Babcock referred to Drake as "the John Wooden of hockey." Wooden won 10 NCAA men's basketball championships in 12 seasons with UCLA, including a record seven in a row from 1967-73.
"What stands out most to me is the impact that Clare had on all those players, all those coaches, the way he treated people," Babcock said from Denmark, where he is attending the 2018 IIHF World Championship. "I think of being at coaching symposiums, then sitting with him afterward and listening to his stories, the life lessons he shared. He was just a spectacular gentleman who made you want to be a better person, a better man. He's going to be missed. But when you think of him, he's always going to bring a big smile to your face. He's done a ton for coaching and for hockey in Canada.
"Clare was such a good person and he got players to play so hard. I think a big part of that was just being the kind of man he was. You had to play that hard because you didn't want to let him down. When I think of him, I think of the number of people he touched.
"As soon as you met Clare, you knew you were around a quality human being. To me, that's first and foremost. If you have good moral fiber and you treat people with respect -- that doesn't mean you can't push people -- well, that's what Clare was all about. He just wanted to make you better and he had that ability to do that. We're just lucky to have known him, lucky to have had him touch our lives, and now it's our opportunity to give back because that's what he did."
Former Dallas Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said, "Clare had a profound impact on a lot of coaches because we all learned what determined teaching really was. He was relentless in doing it right but he did it by not berating people. A very patient but determined man."