Wayne Gino Odjick (September 7, 1970 – January 15, 2023) was a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger who played 12 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1990 to 2002 for the Vancouver Canucks, New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens.
[1][2] His father, Joe, was born in 1939 at Rapid Lake to Basil, a trapper and fishing guide, who was later killed in France in 1944 during the Second World War, and Marie-Antoinette Marchand, who was part-French.
[6] Odjick played hockey from an early age, but it was not until he was 11 that he joined an organized team, which would be managed by Joe.
[9] At that age, he considered quitting hockey to pursue other activities, but decided to accept a try-out for the Hawkesbury Hawks, a Tier II junior team from Ontario.
[10] It was while in Hawkesbury that Odjick was first given the nickname "the Algonquin Assassin," a reference to his heritage and skills as a fighter.
[11] Odjick credited his sense of defending his team and fighting skills in part due to racial tensions between natives of the reserve and nearby townspeople.
He missed most of the 2002–03 season due to concussion from a puck hitting him in the back of the head during pre-season practice, and was subsequently suspended in February 2003 by the Canadiens for failure to report to the minor-league AHL team in Utah.
The Thunder featured several hired ringers, including ex-NHLers Theo Fleury, Sasha Lakovic and Dody Wood, and made it to the semi-finals of the 2005 Allan Cup.
[20] Odjick starred in the 2014 Canadian short film Ronny Nomad and the Legendary Napkins of Wood written and produced by Adrian Patterson.