Paul Gagne was a good one

By Randy Russon
December 16, 2025
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He was playing juvenile hockey in his small, remote northeastern Ontario home town of Iroquois Falls when the head coach and general manager of the Windsor Spitfires happened to take note of his skills. And Wayne Maxner thought so much of Paul Gagne that the Spitfires coach and GM took the 5 foot 10, 180 pound forward with the ninth overall pick in the first round of the 1978 Ontario Hockey League priority selections draft.

That 1978 OHL draft — it was a 12 team league back then — featured four players from Northern Ontario, including Gagne, who were picked in the first round.

Forward Mike Allison from Kenora went first overall to the Sudbury Wolves, defenseman Moe Mantha from Sturgeon Falls went third overall to the Toronto Marlies and goalie Jim Ralph from Sault Ste. Marie went 12th overall to the Ottawa 67’s. (Of note, the ’78 OHL draft also featured future National Hockey League superstar defenseman Paul Coffey, who was taken fifth overall by the Soo Greyhounds from the North York Rangers.)

As for Gagne, his ascent as a high level hockey player would be swift after moving 600 miles from Iroquois Falls to Windsor. After two productive OHL seasons in Windsor — he tallied 23 goals, 18 assists, 41 points in 67 games in ’78-79 and then went on a tear in ’79-80 with 48 goals, 53 assists, 101 points — Gagne was taken in the first round of the 1980 National Hockey League draft by the Colorado Rockies (who would become the New Jersey Devils.)

Gagne would go on to play in 390 NHL games before a back injury would limit his participation. He recovered enough to go on to play eight more years overseas in a Swiss pro league before returning home to coach the Iroquois Falls-based Abitibi Eskimos of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League in 2000. He would coach the Eskimos and the Timmins Rock of the NOJHL with distinction and as a league champion for 16 years before retiring.

Gagne recently passed away at the age of 63 after a battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife, Brenda, and his children, Martine (Matt) and Steven (Julia), as well as his granddaughter, Lena Paula Stella.

Gagne is also survived by his brother Roger (Lynn), a former trainer with the Eskimos and Rock, sister-in-law Jackie Gagne, sister-in-law Carla Gagnon (Serge), brother-in-law Paul Piccotti (Katherine), his nieces and nephews and his very dear friends Dale and Des Quinn and Rock and Rosanne Foy.

Just recently, Gagne became an initial inductee into the newly created Hockey North Hall of Fame. The Hockey North Hall of Fame will hold its initial induction ceremony in the spring of 2026 in Sault Ste. Marie.