Flames alum Lanny McDonald suffers cardiac event returning from NHL all-star game

Hockey legend thanked two nurses who assisted him at Calgary International Airport.
Lanny McDonald, a former Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player, is photographed after being inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame on April 19, 2017, in Toronto. (Chris Young/the Canadian Press)
Lanny McDonald, a Hockey Hall of Famer, experienced a cardiac episode Sunday after returning from the NHL’s all-star game in Toronto.
The 70-year-old claimed in an Instagram post Monday that two nurses on their way to their own planes at Calgary International Airport assisted him when he was in distress.

“It’s true that even tough old guys need help sometimes,” McDonald said in the post.

In the stress of the moment, McDonald’s wife Ardell didn’t get the nurses’ names.

“We are eternally grateful for their care and action … I owe them my life,” McDonald said.
Veteran NHLer Lanny McDonald closes out a hall-of-fame career by winning his first and only Stanley Cup championship.

He said he was in hospital Monday receiving care from doctors and nurses and looking forward to Sunday’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.

“While I hang out here as the professionals figure out next steps for the ol’ ticker, I’ll try to convince the team here to bet on the Chiefs next Sunday and never stop cheering for our Flames.”

McDonald, from Hanna, Alta., scored 500 goals and assisted 506 times in 1,111 NHL games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Colorado Rockies, and Flames over 17 seasons.

When the Flames won the Stanley Cup in 1989, the forward served as co-captain and emotional leader for the team.

McDonald was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1992. He was named to Canada’s Order of Hockey in 2022.