Miroslav Frycer, who played 346 games for the Maple Leafs and led them in points in 1985-85, has died at 61.
The news was relayed through a family member to Lubos Brabec, author of the 2018 book on his Czech countryman ‘My Wild Hockey Life.’ Few details were provided, though Frycer has battled various health issues for years.
The book detailed Frycer’s NHL rise and the good times with the Leafs, followed by a feud with coach John Brophy and a descent into alcoholism and medical problems that required liver and kidney transplants.
Frycer was still managing to coach teams in Europe up to the past couple of years. He’d spoken to the Sun in 2018 about his time in Toronto and his career with a mix of happiness and regret.
“(Owner) Harold Ballard treated me wonderfully. He admired people with balls, who made the escape (when Czechoslovakia was still behind the Iron Curtain),” Frycer said.
“I was a wild and crazy kid, a cowboy. It was not the best team, I was under a lot of distress … and my lifestyle suffered.”
The right winger clashed many times with old-schooler Brophy after Dan Maloney was not rehired as coach. After leaving the Leafs with 279 regular season and playoff points, he played briefly with Detroit and the Oilers, post-Gretzky. But he chose to finish the 1990 playoffs in Europe despite Glen Sather’s urging to return and missed a chance to be part of Edmonton’s Stanley Cup that year.
Playing and later coaching in the picturesque South Tyrol near the Austrian-Italian border meant trouble in paradise. Separated from his first wife at that point, estranged from two kids and with too much time on his hands, he became enamoured with the local wine culture.
Winning a title as Merano’s coach in the late ‘90s led to a non-stop two-week party, but when Frycer finally sobered up, he looked and felt awful. His condition worsened as the next season began.
He was eventually diagnosed with renal failure, possibly related to a genetic condition, but certainly not helped by his alcohol abuse. Though a liver donor was found for a transplant at an Innsbruck, Austria facility, complications from the operation and a follow-up procedure gave him just a 20% chance of survival.
He said he stopped drinking Sept. 10, 1999, but post-operative medication gradually affected his kidneys and by May 2018 it was determined one had to be removed. Again, he lucked out, a compatible donor came forward quickly, and the transplant required a wait of two months instead of up to two years.
By September of that year he was back coaching at Znojmo, the club team of NHL grads such as Martin Havlat and Patrick Elias.
“I do enjoy life now,” he insisted at the time, remarried to Lenka, a former volleyball player. “I wake up sore sometimes, but that’s part of being 60 and feeling my old injuries. But it’s a lot better than the pain from booze.
“Some people who’ve had a drinking problem are embarrassed to talk about it. I talk of mine without shame. If what I have to say puts just one person off drinking – children, my friends, players in the dressing room – it will have been worth it.
“When someone I know appears to be heading for a problem I warn him, ‘Give it a rest, you’re your own worst enemy.’”
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2021
