years-long blood feud<\/a> between the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings by driving Kris Draper\u2019s face into the boards.<\/p>\n\u201cEverybody that was around him or everybody that knew Claude, you felt, OK, you\u2019re in great hands,\u201d Giger said. \u201cHe was super caring. Guys knew, \u2018OK, we can call up Claude whenever we need him.\u2019 He was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
To his clients, he was a father figure, equal parts adviser, mentor and friend.<\/p>\n
And savvy. He had been so comfortable with the business side of hockey by the end of his playing career that he negotiated some of his own contracts. That led to joining the agency run by Giger, a former teammate from the partial season with EV Zug in Switzerland, after hanging up his skates.<\/p>\n
Lemieux played a critical role for 4Sports, which recruits hockey clients exclusively from European countries. When players made their way to North America, he became their main touchpoint, going as far as to open his doors to teenagers to help ease their transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was so tough on the ice, but I never understood that part,\u201d said Lindholm, a longtime client and Boston Bruins defenseman. \u201cI only knew the part of the guy that let me live with his family and drove me around and just had my best interest and tried to help me start my NHL career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each of those clients received the grim news of Lemieux\u2019s death with a personal phone call from the agency on Thursday. They were promised that the 18 remaining employees would continue to work as a team to deliver the same level of service and focus they received previously. Giger was on the phone until around midnight, when he was finally able to reach Meier following the New Jersey Devils forward\u2019s quarterfinal game for Switzerland at the IIHF World Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t know,\u201d Giger said. \u201cI had to wait until the end of the game, and then I informed him about the tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the ice, Lemieux was one of the most ferocious competitors in NHL history \u2014 a clutch playoff performer, often the villain to combatants and opposing fans and somebody who would do anything imaginable to win.<\/p>\n
Tom Fitzgerald played briefly with Lemieux during the 1997-98 season after being traded to the Colorado Avalanche. He didn\u2019t know what to expect after years of battles.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe really was a great teammate, highly competitive,\u201d Fitzgerald said Friday. \u201cHe expected a lot out of himself. In return, he expected a lot of his teammates as well. So he was \u2014 I don\u2019t wanna say demanding, but he had high standards for himself, and he held everybody else to those standards, and that\u2019s why he\u2019s such a winner.\u201d<\/p>\n
And at the negotiating table?<\/p>\n
\u201cCompletely different,\u201d Fitzgerald said. \u201cNot intense. Very calm. Very cool. Like, \u2018Alright, we can talk about that.\u2019 His demeanor was so level. It didn\u2019t go up. It didn\u2019t go down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fitzgerald spent more than a decade in the Devils\u2019 front office, the past seven as GM, before departing in April. He negotiated a number of contracts with Lemieux, including Meier\u2019s eight-year, $70.4 million deal, signed in June 2023.<\/p>\n
The Devils took a risk on Meier, acquiring him from the San Jose Sharks earlier that year with a $10 million qualifying offer as a restricted free agent that summer. Meier could have just taken his QO and become an unrestricted free agent the following summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we bet on New Jersey \u2014 we bet that he would come in and really enjoy it,\u201d Fitzgerald said. \u201cClaude was great because he said, \u2018You know what? You\u2019re right. He loves it there. He wants to stay. He wants long-term.\u2019 He still had some leverage because he could have just taken his QO, stayed in New Jersey and I would have traded him.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we didn\u2019t want that, Claude didn\u2019t want that, Timo didn\u2019t want that. Claude was great to work with, and we really had no problems coming to that number. We talked about different structures, but with Claude, he did what was in the best interest of his clients.\u201d<\/p>\n
In July of 2021, Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin was having trouble signing stars Kirill Kaprizov and Kevin Fiala. So he decided to turn his attention to restricted free agent Eriksson Ek, whom he hoped would be the simplest negotiation. He called up Lemieux, his friend and former Devils Cup champion teammate, and two phone calls later, Lemieux and Guerin agreed to the first eight-year deal in Wild history, a $42 million contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cTook three days,\u201d Guerin said at the time. \u201cIt just shows how much Joel wants to be here (to make) this commitment to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if that timeline and ease of negotiations were accurate, Lemieux said: \u201cTrue story.\u201d<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t to say Lemieux was a pushover at the bargaining table.<\/p>\n
Armstrong said he had \u201cthat same competitive spirit\u201d as an agent that he had as a player.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had that fight in him,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cOn my end, he was good to deal with. He was professional. He always called you on his clients on a regular basis. He was definitely an agent. I never thought of him as a part-time guy. He was always in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel Briere joked that he was glad he never had to go toe-to-toe with Lemieux as an agent. The Philadelphia Flyers GM saw how competitive Lemieux was as teammates in Phoenix early in Briere\u2019s playing career. That was a thrill for Briere, who grew up idolizing Lemieux as a Montreal Canadiens legend and 1986 Stanley Cup champ.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t have any negotiations, but we had some conversations on players,\u201d Briere said. \u201cLuckily, I didn\u2019t have to battle with him because if he\u2019s negotiating the way he was playing the game, it\u2019d be pretty scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Lindholm was preparing for the 2012 NHL Draft, the teenager from a small Swedish town barely knew the league he hoped to enter.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t watch YouTube or social media highlights. The only NHLers he knew of were from Sweden. And his Swedish agents didn\u2019t have a North American footprint until they found Lemieux.<\/p>\n
Soon, Lemieux was flying to Sweden to meet Lindholm. After being drafted, Lindholm found himself in the Lemieux household instead of checking into a hotel room, left to navigate a foreign country alone.<\/p>\n
Lindholm called Lemieux the \u201cbridge\u201d that helped him grow accustomed to the NHL and life in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came over to the U.S. before the draft and stuff, he had me live with him and his family,\u201d an emotional Lindholm said from Sweden on Friday. \u201cI did that multiple times. I would come and have a base and stay with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt made it very easy for me to transition into the U.S. culture. They just treated me like their own son.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the years, Lindholm came to know Lemieux\u2019s wife, Deborah, as well as son Brendan and daughter Claudia. He watched the family grow while growing up himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve known Claude for my whole adult life in the U.S.,\u201d Lindholm said. \u201cHe was like an extra father in some ways when I came over at 18 to a totally different country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I really knew the human side of Claude, which I don\u2019t think many people really think of first when they think of Claude Lemieux.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_1340-scaled-e1780103961404.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n Hampus Lindholm and Claude Lemieux pose together after Lindholm was drafted by the Ducks at No. 6 in the 2012 NHL Draft. (Photo courtesy of Hampus Lindholm)<\/p>\n
Lindholm said many of the most important relationships in his North American life can be traced back to Lemieux\u2019s guidance. At Lemieux\u2019s urging, he lived with a billet family despite already being accustomed to living on his own from age 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe little seeds that he planted when I was 18, they\u2019ve grown into relationships,\u201d Lindholm said. \u201cThey\u2019ve grown into lifelong friends. He\u2019s done so much for me that it\u2019s kind of grown into this really big spiderweb of family and people that I love and have around me that support me. He\u2019s kind of the start of all that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindholm and Andersen were Lemieux\u2019s first clients. Both arrived in North America as young Europeans searching for their footing. Both found an agent who cared as much about their lives as their careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe really loved helping people like me,\u201d Lindholm said. \u201cI don\u2019t think people always understand how hard it is for people to move (across) countries. You have no one, and then you have people like that who just open up their arms for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andersen had a game to play Friday night, hoping to close out the Montreal Canadiens and help lift the Carolina Hurricanes into the Stanley Cup Final. Lindholm couldn\u2019t get Andersen out of his mind, wondering how he was going to play that game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he\u2019s chasing something that is the biggest thing for us as hockey players to play for. So he\u2019s in his little bubble,\u201d said Lindholm, who was waiting until after the Eastern Conference final to reach out to his good friend. \u201cI don\u2019t want to get into his mojo. But, of course, he\u2019s just like me. He\u2019s known Claude from the start, so without me even talking to him, I can tell you that he\u2019s obviously really saddened by this. It\u2019s really sad for everyone that\u2019s been around him. I think Freddie can just go out and try to be the best version of himself. But, yeah, it\u2019s so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The news of Lemieux\u2019s death caused Lindholm to reflect on all those moments \u2014 the rides, the conversations, the introductions, the doors opened without expectation of anything in return.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was crucial for me,\u201d Lindholm said. \u201cHis whole family, really. They\u2019ve been so open and loving for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
For all the Stanley Cup titles, playoff goals and infamous moments attached to Lemieux\u2019s name, Lindholm will remember something else.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always smiled and always lived the most out of every day,\u201d Lindholm said.<\/p>\n
The agent business isn\u2019t the same magnet for retiring players as coaching, scouting and management.<\/p>\n
But it always suited Lemieux.<\/p>\n
\u201cAway from the rink, he\u2019s a very personable guy,\u201d said Brendan Shanahan, a former teammate who became Toronto Maple Leafs president after his playing days. \u201cHe cares about people. He was a very sensitive, emotional guy, and so the idea of working for players doesn\u2019t surprise me at all. When you\u2019re taken away from a dressing room, you want to feel somehow a part of the brotherhood. Being an agent and looking after players probably satisfied something very important to Claude.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Lemieux, longtime NHL GM Lou Lamoriello saw a man who never lost his love for the game.<\/p>\n
Lamoriello both traded Lemieux from the Devils and brought him back, winning the Cup twice in the process. He went on to negotiate a number of contracts with Lemieux, including the five-year, $25 million deal Andersen signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs in June 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players that we had over the years that he represented, he took care of them,\u201d Lamoriello said. \u201cHe worked hard for them. Maybe before he took the job, I would have (been) surprised that he wanted to do it, but once he took it, he engaged himself in it. He traveled. He kept in contact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lemieux left a lasting impression on those he worked with. The shock of his death produced an outpouring of emotion for the 30 clients who got a call they never imagined taking this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t wish anybody to be in that situation,\u201d Giger said. \u201cIt\u2019s super sad for us. And imagine how sad it is for the family.\u201d<\/p>\n