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Meltzer's Musings: Remembering Zezel |
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REMEMBERING PETER ZEZEL
Today marks five years since the passing of Peter Zezel at age 44. On this Memorial Day in the United States, I thought it would be appropriate to devote today's blog to Zezel's memory as well as those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of their country.
A fan favorite in Philadelphia and elsewhere during a career that spanned 873 regular season games and 131 playoff games in the NHL, Zezel died on May 26, 2009 from a rare blood disorder called Hemolytic Anemia.
As a player, he was best known as a hard-working forward who excelled on faceoffs and was an underrated offensive player in the early part of his career. Zezel compiled 219 goals and a respectable 608 points during his NHL career. Off the ice, he was known as a caring, generous and fun-loving person whose greatest passion was teaching hockey and soccer to children. One of the most popular Flyers players of the Mike Keenan era, Zezel was a heartthrob among many young female fans with his matinee idol looks but also a highly respected player among all Philadelphia fans.
Zezel's father, Petar Žeželj, was born to Serbian parents in Srb, Lika, Yugoslavia, along with a brother named Dusan and sisters Kosa, Dusanka and Neda. Petar fought in World War II and came to Canada at the age of 18. He married Valerie Thomson and was married for 47 years until his death at age 80 in Oct. 2010. Slightly anglicizing the spelling of their surname to Zezel, the family had children Peter Jr. and Neda.
Peter Zezel was outstanding two-sport athlete, excelling in both hockey and soccer, during his upbringing in Scarborough, Ontario. Soccer was the sport of his father's heart, as the elder Zezel played for the Hamilton-based Serbian White Eagles Football Club. Peter was a member of the Canadian national Under-20 soccer team as a midfielder. In 1982, he played in three exhibition games for the NASL's Toronto Blizzard. Nine years later, Zezel played one season for the North York Rockets of the CSL during the National Hockey League offseason.
A second-round pick by the Flyers in the 1983 NHL Draft, Zezel posted 47 goals and 133 points for the OHL's Toronto Marlies during the 1983-84 campaign. The following year, he established himself as a regular for a Flyers team that posted the best regular season record in the NHL and took a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals despite icing the youngest lineup in the NHL.
Zezel spent four-and-a-half mostly happy seasons in Philadelphia, which included another run to the Cup Finals in 1987. His best season came in 1986-87 when he posted a career-high 33 goals and 72 points in 71 regular season games and then added 13 playoff points en route to coming just one win shy of winning the Stanley Cup. That year, Zezel also garnered a pair of first-place votes for the Selke Trophy, although he did not place as a finalist for the NHL's award for the league's top defensive forward.
One year earlier, Zezel landed a small role in the hockey-themed Rob Lowe movie, Youngblood. His appearance in the movie furthered added to his burgeoning local celebrity.
A big kid at heart, Zezel loved to have a good time and joke around. He was also very soft-hearted and generous. Zezel was especially good with kids and donated considerable time -- with no publicity attached to it -- to visiting children's hospitals, and staying in touch with the families of seriously ill children. He also supported youth sports and would arrange donations of equipment for those whose families could not afford for them to play.
The Flyers of the Keenan years were an exceptionally close-knit team. However, along with the good times, the period also had its share of tears and strife.
When Vezina Trophy winning goaltender Pelle Lindbergh died in November 1985, a 20-year-old Zezel was one of the goaltender's most emotionally devastated teammates. The emotions were too much to hold inside, and Zezel publicly wept both at the hospital and during the memorial ceremony for the goaltender at the Spectrum.
The Keenan years were also a time in which the Flyers' team leaders occasionally had to rally the troops to stay united and not to stage a mutiny against the ultra-demanding head coach. Like every player on the team, Zezel felt Keenan's lash on more than one occasion. He may not have known it at the time, but Zezel was actually one of the players whom Keenan most respected and enjoyed having on his team. Keenan later brought Zezel along to join him during his coaching stints in St. Louis and Vancouver.
On Nov. 28, 1988, the Flyers traded Zezel to the Blues in exchange for Mike Bullard. It was an ill-fated deal. Zezel had been slowed by serious knee and shoulder injuries in the past two seasons and Bullard posted 113 points in 127 games as a Flyer but the team itself continued a downward slide. Zezel remained a more well-rounded player than the one-dimensional Bullard, and a now-healthy Zezel regained his offensive form to post 72 points in 73 games for the 1989-90 Blues.
In the years that followed, Zezel increasingly transformed from a center who regularly saw time on scoring lines to more of a strictly defensive-minded center. His career took him through a brief stint with the Washington Capitals, a three-plus season stay with the Toronto Maple Leafs (where he was part of the 1992-93 team that fell one win short of reaching the Stanley Cup Finals), one season with the Dallas Stars, one-plus season of a second stint with St. Louis, brief portions of one-plus season with the New Jersey Devils and parts of two seasons with Vancouver.
On March 23, 1999, the Canucks traded Zezel to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in exchange for future considerations. Zezel declined to report to Anaheim, and instead returned to Ontario. The NHL voided the deal.
Zezel had a deeply personal reason for not going to California. His three-year-old niece Jillian, whom the unmarried and childless Zezel adored, was dying of nuroblastoma (a form of cancer). Zezel had requested a trade to either the Maple Leafs or Buffalo Sabres so he could be in closer proximity to his sister's family in Scarborough. Instead, Canucks general manager Brian Burke dealt him to the Ducks; the most geographically distant team in the NHL from Toronto. Zezel announced his retirement and went to Scarborough to be supportive to his family.
On May 16. 1999, Jilliann died. Peter never returned to the NHL but did later play a few games per season for the Cambridge Hornets of the Ontario Hockey Association's Major League Hockey circuit. Over the final 11 years of his too-short life, Zezel devoted much of his time and effort to operating youth hockey and soccer camps. That became his greatest passion.
The disease that would eventually claim Zezel's life, Hemolytic Anemia, was diagnosed in 2001. After undergoing chemotherapy, he went into remission. However, the medications Zezel took and other developing health problems had the unwanted side effect of contributing to a massive amount of weight gain, which led some people unaware of his condition and his other developing health problems to make cruel remarks about his bloated appearance when he attended NHL games.
In 2009, the cancer returned. He once again underwent chemotherapy and had his spleen surgically removed. The treatment did not work. Zezel experienced severe headaches and his condition worsened. Doctors recommended immediate surgery.
Feeling weak and very ill, Zezel agreed but asked his family to donate his organs if he did not make it. It was the final request he ever made. Surgery revealed he had suffered brain hemorrhaging and he soon lapsed into a coma. Doctors placed him on life support.
The Zezel family, as the Lindbergh family had done in 1985, asked the doctors to remove the machines and donate his organs so that others might live. It was Peter Zezel's final gift.
Peter Zezel died on May 26, 2009. His funeral was held at the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Mississauga, Ontario. Peter Zezel Sr., who was his son's biggest hero as a child and who became his namesake's most ardent admirer as an adult, passed away less than a year and a half after his beloved son. He was survived by wife Valerie, daughter Neda and three grandchildren. Neda and husband Richard have sons named Matthew and Jack and a daughter named Nicole.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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