Richard maintains monumental presence in Quebec 25 years after death

It has been 25 years since the May 27, 2000 death of Montreal Canadiens legend Maurice Richard, more than 65 years since the greatest goal-scorer of his generation played his final game.

Yet to this day, the mighty Rocket remains a vital part of Quebec's fabric in many ways. He still is spoken of reverentially, his exploits still discussed, his influence and impact on hockey and the political landscape of his native province still the subject of study.

On Sunday at Bell Centre in Montreal, many of Richard's family members in attendance, two Quebec government representatives announced that the Rocket has been designated an official historic figure in the province, a plaque unveiled to mark the honor.

For decades after his 1960 retirement, Richard would suggest that his fame would be fleeting, that he expected he would fade from public view. That day has not come, nor will it any time soon.

Maurice Richard Jr. with Quebec Culture Minister Mathieu Lacombe (r.) and Isabelle Charest, the province's Minister Responsible for Sports, Recreation and the Outdoors, at the May 25, 2025, Bell Centre plaque unveiling honoring Maurice "Rocket" Richard.

"Even if he thought that people would forget him in the long run, we realize today that this is not the case," Maurice Richard Jr. said at the plaque unveiling. "I am sure that he would be very surprised today. It is an immeasurable honor, and we are extremely proud."

Indeed, Richard forever was humbled by the love of the countless Quebecers who flocked to him for a handshake, a photo or an autograph. If fans put him on a pedestal, he would step down off it, happy to mingle.

"A journalist once asked my father if he would mind being called by his first name by the average man in the street. He replied that what would bother him was not being called by his first name," Richard Jr. said. "My father never sought fame or notoriety. He played a sport he loved, he always loved his fellow citizens. I think that was more than enough for him."

Quebec Culture Minister Mathieu Lacombe unveiled the plaque alongside Isabelle Charest, a three-time medal-winning Canadian Olympian in short-track speed skating who is the province's elected Minister Responsible for Sports, Recreation and the Outdoors. Its installation site is yet to be determined.

With his famously intense glare, Maurice Richard is photographed in the Canadiens' Montreal Forum dressing room during the 1955-56 season. The Canadiens would win the Stanley Cup that season, and the next four consecutively, with Richard team captain 1956-57 through 1959-60.

Quebec's Cultural Heritage Act gives Lacombe the authority to designate an official historical figure or event, the former defined as a deceased person who played a remarkable role in the province's history.

Richard is the 106th individual to receive this symbolic honor; the only other athlete so recognized is Louis Cyr, whose superman-like feats spanning the 19th and 20th centuries make him among the strongest men in history.

"[Richard] was, perhaps without necessarily knowing or wanting to be, an exceptional force for the self-affirmation of Quebecers," Lacombe said. "Maurice Richard still retains his hero status today and remains one of the important symbols of Quebec identity."

Richard died at age 78 after a two-year battle with abdominal cancer. He would be the first of the Canadiens' three crown jewels to die, predeceasing fellow Hall of Famers Jean Beliveau (2014) and Guy Lafleur (2022).

From left, Montreal Canadiens legends Guy Lafleur, Jean Beliveau and Maurice Richard, widely considered the team's three crown jewels, Yvan Cournoyer a fourth. They starred over a period of nearly four decades.

He lay in state on May 30, 2000 in Montreal at Molson (now Bell) Centre, as would Beliveau and Lafleur, 115,000 mourners filing past his coffin to pay their last respects. His dramatic funeral was held the following day at the city's historic Notre-Dame Basilica, the service televised live across Canada.

Richard forever has transcended hockey in Montreal and Quebec, a French-Canadian superstar who was almost necessary to a people in the 1940s and 1950s.

He played 978 NHL games, all with the Canadiens, from 1942 through his retirement in 1960, scoring 544 goals -- still atop the team's all-time list -- with 422 assists. Richard's 966 points rank fourth on the Canadiens, and he leads the franchise in 20-goal seasons (14), 30-goal seasons (nine; tied with Steve Shutt) and hat tricks (26).

The Rocket's 82 career Stanley Cup Playoff goals, eighth all-time in the NHL, lead that Canadiens list too, three better than Beliveau, while his seven playoff games of three or more goals are second in the NHL (tied with Jari Kurri), trailing only the 10 of Wayne Gretzky.

Maurice Richard in a portrait taken at Maple Leaf Gardens in November 1942, a month after he signed his rookie contract.

He won the Stanley Cup eight times -- in 1944, 1946, 1953 and 1956, and then, as captain, four times consecutively from 1957-60. He also won the Hart Trophy as NHL most valuable player in 1946-47.

While the Rocket never won an NHL scoring title, he was the first to score 50 goals in a single season, that coming in the 50-game 1944-45 schedule, and the first to score 500 career goals, reaching that milestone in 1957. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961, the customary three-year waiting period waived to induct him immediately following his 18-season career.

The Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy, introduced by the NHL in 1998-99, is presented annually to the player with the most regular-season goals. It was won this season by Leon Draisaitl, who scored 52 for the Edmonton Oilers.

Richard's star sparkled brightest during the playoffs. This postseason, Draisaitl is near the top in goals (six, tied for fifth), assists (15, second) and points (21, tied for second), with the Oilers leading the Dallas Stars 2-1 in the Western Conference Final, with Game 4 at Rogers Place Edmonton on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, ESPN, ESPN+).

Maurice Richard bulls his way toward Chicago Black Hawks goalie Mike Karakas, Johnny Mariucci trying to defend, during a mid-1940s game at Chicago Stadium.

Famously, the Rocket played right wing on the Canadiens' omnipotent 1940s "Punch Line," with Elmer Lach at center and Toe Blake, who coached Richard the final five seasons of his career, on left wing.

Targeted legally and otherwise by opponents, the Rocket played with a furnace-hot passion, carrying checkers on his back to the net while shouldering the hopes and dreams of an entire province.

In a politically charged time in Quebec, French-Canadians tired of being held down and marginalized by the English, he was made a pawn against his wishes, forever claiming, "I'm just a hockey player."

But to francophones who craved a standard-bearer, Richard was much more than that. A population claimed him as their own, using him as a rallying cry during a time of political need, the Rocket becoming far more than just a gifted goal-scorer and the locomotive that pulled his team. As such, he also became a lightning rod, a target for foes on and off the ice.

Maurice Richard in the Canadiens' Montreal Forum dressing room before the start of 1956-57 training camp. Richard would succeed the retired Emile "Butch" Bouchard as captain of the Canadiens and wear the "C" for his final four NHL seasons, winning the Stanley Cup all four years. At right looking at a Forum program is Richard's younger brother, Henri, the second of his NHL-record 11 championships to be won that season.

Richard's March 1955 suspension for the final three games of the regular season and the entire playoffs by NHL President Clarence Campbell after a violent game in Boston would ignite a powder-keg, the so-called Richard Riot spilling out of the Forum that March 17 night to trash the city. The Rocket's disciples would be founding members of the so-called Quiet Revolution in Quebec, this cultural and linguistic shift forever reshaping provincial politics.

The Rocket is celebrated with statues throughout the province; in bronze, he strides, elbow up, in a plaza outside Bell Centre alongside Howie Morenz, the team’s first true superstar, and Beliveau and Lafleur.

Arenas and streets have been named for him, and at least one hockey team carries his famous nickname; the Canadiens' American Hockey League affiliate was renamed the Laval Rocket when it moved from St. John's, Newfoundland to north of Montreal for the 2017-18 season.

Last February and March, hockey officially was recognized as Quebec's "national sport" and the first recorded game in Montreal in 1875 was designated as an historic event.

Maurice Richard at home in the late 1950s with a Stanley Cup miniature, one of eight he won during his Hall of Fame career. With him are a 23-inch wooden totem-pole trophy presented to him Jan. 19, 1958 by the Vancouver Turf and Country Club, and a painting celebrating his 500th regular-season NHL goal, scored Oct. 19, 1957 against Chicago Black Hawks goalie Glenn Hall.

Endless honors have been bestowed upon Richard, during his life and for a quarter-century after it. The historic figure designation adds to the growing catalog that shows the Rocket still burns brightly in his hometown and native province.

"I don't think my father ever fully realized how important he was to Quebecers," Richard Jr. said. "He was always surprised when he had a great round of applause or people were talking about him as if he were God.

"He wasn’t expecting that. He certainly didn't play hockey to get that from the people. I've learned during my life that he had a very large family, one that was much bigger than just his children. …

"His funeral was the most memorable moment for me. Before, we knew our father was popular. But at his funeral, seeing the love and respect people had for him really touched me. I understood that for Quebecers, he was a special man. Today, we have proof of that."

Top photo: On one skate and with forward Parker MacDonald's stick jabbed in his collarbone, the Canadiens' Maurice Richard is about to score on Maple Leafs goalie Harry Lumley during a 1954-55 game in Toronto. In the background are Toronto's Tim Horton and Montreal's Ken Mosdell.