At Dan Snyder’s 2003 memorial service in Ontario, Atlanta Thrashers coach Bob Hartley told of his first game back in Denver after he had been hired as Atlanta’s coach, shortly after the Avalanche fired him. That day, Hartley said, he told Snyder, his feisty young center, that he would spend most of the game checking Avalanche center Peter Forsberg.
Snyder was unfazed.
But later in the day, Hartley said, Snyder approached his coach. “I’ll cover Forsberg and he won’t do much,” Snyder said, “but can I play one shift versus Joe Sakic? He’s my idol.”
The Thrashers won that February 2003 game 4-3 in overtime.
Seven months later, Snyder was in Atlanta riding with teammate and friend Dany Heatley in Heatley’s Ferrari. Heatley lost control, and Snyder was thrown from the car and suffered horrific injuries. He died six days later. He was 25.
Flash forward to last weekend at the Pepsi Center. A Pace Arrow RV with Dan’s No. 37 on the side was parked outside. Snyder’s father, Graham, was at the Avs’ morning skate, wearing a Quebec Nordiques T-shirt. He chatted with players who knew his son – including Avalanche winger Andrew Brunette, briefly Dan’s Atlanta teammate – and waited to say hello to his son’s hero, Sakic.
“Dan was a Nordiques fanatic, and he tried to emulate Joe Sakic as much as he could,” Graham said.
Graham and his wife, LuAnn, are in the midst of a season-long tour of all 30 NHL arenas, hoping to raise money for the Dan Snyder Memorial Fund and the construction of an arena named in his honor in his hometown of Elmira, Ontario.
“We’re here to carry on a legacy for Dan,” Graham Snyder said. “He did a lot of work in the communities where he lived and played hockey. We’d also like to give back to the hockey community, because they’ve been so supportive of us the last three years. They’ve helped us through a very difficult time. We’re getting a chance to say thank you to a lot of people along the way.”
Heatley pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide and was placed on three years’ probation.
The Snyders’ refusal to push for additional charges and jail time, or to jump at the chance to sue Heatley, won them a lot of fans. “I guess it was a little bit unexpected for a lot of people, but it’s the right thing to do for us,” Graham Snyder said.
Early next year, the Snyders will attend an Ottawa home game and visit, among others, Senators star Heatley.
“Originally, we had talked about going there first, and we even talked to Dany about that,” Snyder said. “We decided we didn’t want the focus of this to be on the accident, but on Dan. Dany’s been really supportive of all of this and what we’re trying to do.”
More information on the Dan Snyder Foundation is available at: www.37risingstars.com.
