BOSTON — Tom McVie, who coached the Winnipeg Jets to the 1979 World Hockey Association championship over Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers in the final year before the franchises were absorbed into the NHL, has died. He was 89. McVie, a longtime resident of Vancouver who brought the Stanley Cup to Mountain View Ice Arena in 2011 when he was a scout for the champion Boston Bruins, was also the Jets’ first coach in the NHL and the Devils’ second after they moved from Colorado in 1982. He also coached the Washington Capitals, compiling an overall NHL record of 126-263 with 73 ties in parts of eight seasons from 1975-92. The Trail, B.C., native joined the Bruins as an assistant coach in 1992 and got his name on the Stanley Cup when Boston won the 2011 championship.

As part of his day with the Cup, McVie brought it to Vancouver where, at the time, he had lived for about two decades. More than 500 fans lined up at Mountain View Ice Arena that August day in 2011 to see and take pictures with the famous trophy. “The people of Vancouver and Portland have been so good to the McVie family over the years, I really want to share this with all of them,” McVie said that day to The Columbian. “Isn’t this just awesome?” Boston president Cam Neely, a Portland Winterhawks alum whose playing career overlapped with McVie’s coaching tenure, said McVie was like family to the Bruins organization.

“His hockey mind, colorful personality, gruff voice, and unmatched sense of humor livened up every room he entered, and he will be dearly missed,” Neely said. McVie made his NHL head coaching debut when he succeeded Hall of Famer Milt Schmidt in Washington on New Year’s Eve in 1975, but he never finished higher than fourth before heading to the WHA. He took over the Jets, whose roster included a 40-year-old Bobby Hull, and won the 1979 Avco World Trophy. “Coach McVie was an historical figure in Winnipeg’s pro hockey history as the coach of the last team to ever win the Avco Cup in the World Hockey Association, as well as the first coach in the team’s National Hockey League history back in 1979,” the Jets posted on X on Monday. “Tom’s personality, voice, and knowledge of the game transcended his title and time in our city as the team made the transition from the WHA to the NHL. His ability to tell a story only added to the legend of the hockey club’s arrival on the big stage. We’d like to extend our deepest condolences to the many friends and loved ones of Coach McVie.”

McVie told the Boston Globe after joining the Bruins organization in 1992 that he was proud to be a hockey lifer. “If I wasn’t coaching hockey,” he said, “then I’d probably be driving the Zamboni.”