Ron Toigo: Pat Quinn ‘lived life the way you wish everybody would’

Article content

Pat Quinn has been gone for 10 years. You can hear the raw emotion in Ron Toigo’s voice when he speaks about that.

Article content

Article content

Recommended Videos

Article content

Quinn is among B.C.’s most beloved sports figures. He was a player, coach and general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, and the architect of one the team’s most celebrated eras, highlighted by leading them to the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals. 

Along the way, he and Toigo ran in the same circles and became friends. Quinn was part of the group led by Toigo that brought the Vancouver Giants and the WHL to the Pacific Coliseum in 2001-02. Toigo became the club’s principal owner and Quinn was a minority shareholder, along with the likes of hockey great Gordie Howe.

Quinn died on Nov. 23, 2014 after a lenghty illness. He was 71.

“He might be the finest human being I’ve ever known,” Toigo said. “He cared about people. People were important to him. It didn’t matter who they were. I remember walking around the Coliseum and the time he would spend with people. And when people were having a hard time he felt for them and did whatever he could to help.

Article content

Article content

“He lived life the way you wish everybody would. For the guy he was and the presence he had, he never thought he was bigger than anyone else.

“At one point, he filled the void for when my dad (Peter Toigo Sr.) was gone, but then he become one of my best friends, for sure. I miss him a ton. He’s irreplaceable.”

Quinn, as you might guess, was a sounding board and a Google search engine for hockey issues for the Giants, particularly in their earliest days.

“You would have a situation similar to something he had dealt with in the past and you could use that,” said Toigo, who still heads up the Giants, a club now based out of the Langley Events Centre. “And his relationships in the NHL were as good as it gets. Everything is about relationships in the end and Pat had more relationships in the sports world than anybody — even some on the business side.

Article content

“We’re certainly not the consistent group we were when Pat was around.” 

Toigo was family friends with Howe as well, and there were nights at the Coliseum when both Quinn and Howe were there and would sit together in the Giants’ ownership suite, watching the team play.

Howe died in 2016. He was 88.

“It just went by in a flash, those years that both Pat and Gordie would come to games,” said Toigo. “I’d sit between the two of them and they’d just go back and forth. If I could have written a book with the stories those guys were telling, it would have been a bestseller. It was the three of us, sitting there watching the Giants play. I didn’t appreciate the magnitude of what it was at the time, but I sure do now.” 

Toigo says that he and Quinn talked during his Canuck days about the possibility of opening a steak restaurant. It never came to fruition. It has happened since. Pat Quinn’s Restaurant and Bar started up in 2017 at Tsawwassen Springs, a development that Toigo owns. The restaurant is filled with Quinn memorabilia. 

Article content

“It acknowledges some of the stuff he did and there’s a lot to be proud of,” Toigo said.

This current incarnation of the Giants gets back to action on Friday, playing host to the Everett Silvertips at the Langley Events Centre (7 p.m.). Vancouver (10-8-4-0), who are coming off a 4-3 win over the Prince George Cougars on Sunday that ended a six-game Giants’ losing skid, should have top scorer Cameron Schmidt back in the line-up. He missed Sunday getting ready for the two-game CHL USA Prospects Challenge series in London, Ont., on Tuesday and Oshawa on Wednesday.

Those games featured some of the top players eligible for the 2025 NHL Draft. Schmidt, who has 23 goals in just 21 games, was ranked No. 6 in the draft rankings that TSN’s Craig Button put out on Monday.

Article content

Everett, meanwhile, is the WHL’s top team. They carried a 19-3-1-1 record record and a seven-game points streak (6-0-0-1) into a Wednesday night visit to the Victoria Royals. 

One of their losses was their home opener to the Giants, with Vancouver taking a 4-3 decision on Sept. 21 behind a two-goal showing from Schmidt and a 37-save performance from Burke Hood.

The Giants are also home Sunday (4 p.m.) to the Seattle Thunderbirds. Canucks defence prospect Sawyer Mynio (upper body injury) is listed day-to-day by the Seattle for the second straight week, so he’s questionable for the weekend currently. He hasn’t played since Nov. 8. Mynio was a 2023 third-round draft pick by the Canucks.

sewen@postmedia.com

Article content