Ashby was born in Kamloops, British Columbia, and played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Colorado Rockies and Edmonton Oilers in his NHL career.
Ashby played 188 career NHL games, scoring 40 goals, 56 assists, and 96 points.
On May 30, 1981, a few days after finishing the 1980–81 season in which Ashby played with the CHL Wichita Wind, he and his wife, Terry, were involved in an automobile accident in the Okanagan Valley.
Both he and his wife, Terry, were taken to the hospital in Kelowna, British Columbia, where he died afterwards from massive internal injuries.
Okanagan Valley police said that Ashby and his wife were present in the car that was struck head-on by a pickup truck.