Jan 18, 2026, 06:23 PM ET<\/p>\n
MONTREAL — Phil Goyette, the former NHL forward who helped the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> win Stanley Cup titles in his first four seasons and was the New York Islanders<\/a>‘ first coach, has died. He was 92.<\/p>\n The Canadiens said in a statement Sunday that Goyette died Saturday, saying Goyette’s “family would like to thank the public for their wishes of sympathy.” The team didn’t provide a cause of death.<\/p>\n Goyette, from Lachine, Quebec, made his debut with the Canadiens in 1956-57. He also played for the New York Rangers<\/a>, Buffalo Sabres<\/a> and St. Louis Blues<\/a>, winning the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct in 1969-70 with St. Louis.<\/p>\n In 940 regular-season games, Goyette had 207 goals and 467 assists. The center added 17 goals and 29 assists in 94 playoff games. He wrapped up his playing career in 1971-72, falling short of a fifth Stanley Cup title when the Rangers fell to Boston in six games in the final.<\/p>\n “We join the hockey world in sending our condolences to Phil’s loved ones, friends, and former teammates,” the Rangers said in a statement.<\/p>\n Goyette coached the expansion Islanders in 1972-73, going 6-40-4 before he was replaced by Earl Ingarfield.<\/p>\n “The Islanders are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Phil Goyette, the organization’s original head coach,” the team said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan 18, 2026, 06:23 PM ET MONTREAL — Phil Goyette, the former NHL forward who helped the Montreal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-416100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}