Mike Bossy, 4-time Stanley Cup champion with the New York Islanders, dead at 65

Mike Bossy, one of hockey's most prolific goal-scorers and a star for the New York Islanders during their 1980s dynasty, has died after a battle with lung cancer. He was 65.

The Islanders and TVA Sports, the French-language network in Canada where he worked as a hockey analyst, confirmed Bossy's death. A team spokesperson said Bossy was in his native Montreal.

Bossy had revealed his diagnosis in October in a letter to TVA Sports.

"It is with a lot of sadness that I need to step away from your screens, for a necessary pause," Bossy wrote in French. "I intend to fight with all the determination and fire you've seen me show on the ice."

It's the third loss from that Islanders era this year after fellow Hockey Hall of Famer Clark Gillies died in January and Jean Potvin died in March.

Daughter Tanya Bossy said her father was "no longer in pain."

"My dad loved hockey, sure, but first and foremost he loved life," she said in a statement in French on behalf of the Bossy family. "Until the end of his journey, he hung on. He wanted to live more than anything."

Bossy helped the Islanders win the Stanley Cup from 1980-83, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1982. He scored the Cup-winning goal in 1982 and '83.

Bossy was a first-round pick in 1977 and played his entire 10-year NHL career with New York. He won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, got the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly conduct three times and led the league in goals twice.

Bossy scored 50 or more goals in each of his first nine seasons — the league's longest streak. He and Wayne Gretzky are the only players in hockey history with nine 50-goal seasons.

"The New York Islanders organization mourns the loss of Mike Bossy, an icon not only on Long Island but the entire hockey world," Islanders president and general manager Lou Lamoriello said. "His drive to be the best every time he stepped on the ice was second to none. Along with his teammates, he helped win four straight Stanley Cup championships, shaping the history of this franchise forever."

Bossy is one of only five players to score 50 goals in 50 games. He remains the all-time leader in goals a game in the regular season at 0.762, and only two players have recorded more hat tricks than Bossy's 39.

He ranks third in points a game and seventh on the all-time scoring list. Those are all in the regular season when Bossy put up some of the best numbers in the history of the game. In the playoffs, Bossy was even more clutch. He is the only player with four game-winners in the same playoff series and scored three playoff overtime goals.

Led by Bossy, Gillies, Bryan Trottier and defenceman Denis Potvin, the Islanders succeeded Scotty Bowman's 1970s Montreal Canadiens as the NHL's next dynasty before Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers took over the sport.