Stéphane Provost (May 5, 1967 – April 22, 2005) was a

French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) linesman.

Career

Provost played as a

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

prior to his officiating career, playing two seasons in the

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League The Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL; , LHJMQ), formerly the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). The league includes teams in Quebec ...

(QMJHL) for the

Verdun Junior Canadiens The Verdun Junior Canadiens were a junior ice hockey team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) from 1984 to 1989. They played home games at the Verdun Auditorium, and won the President's Cup during the 1984–85 QMJHL season. Hist ...

and the

Saint-Jean Castors Saint-Jean (French for Saint John) may refer to: Places Belgium * Sint-Jan, a borough of Ypres, sometimes referenced as ''Saint-Jean'' in a World War I-related context Canada *Lac Saint-Jean *Lac-Saint-Jean-Est Regional County Municipality * ...

between 1985 and 1987. He then worked as an official in the QMJHL from 1989 to 1994. Provost was hired by the NHL in September 1994 and officiated his first

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

game on January 25, 1995, between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning; his career included 695

games.

Death

Provost was killed at 37 years of age in a

road accident A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Tr ...

at approximately 3:30 a.m.

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...

while travelling on his

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

west on State Road 84 after hitting a

tractor trailer A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commonly ...

. The motorcycle burst into flames, falling onto Provost, who was not wearing a

motorcycle helmet A motorcycle helmet is a type of helmet used by motorcycle riders. Motorcycle helmets contribute to motorcycle safety by protecting the rider's head in the event of an impact. They reduce the risk of head injury by 69% and the risk of death by 4 ...

. Police reports indicate Provost was leaving a bar at the

Hard Rock Hotel Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a chain of theme bar-restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos, hotels and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll memorabilia, a ...

Hollywood, Florida Hollywood is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. It is a suburb in the Miami metropolitan area. The population of Hollywood was 153,067 as of 2020, making it the Broward County#Communities, third-largest city in Broward County, th ...

. The driver of the tractor trailer was uninjured. Provost was survived by his wife, Sandra, and two daughters, Ashley and Reily.

Tributes

Following his death, officials in the QMJHL wore his officials uniform number 72 on their helmet for the remainder of the

2004–05 QMJHL season The 2004–05 QMJHL season was the 36th season in the history of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The QMJHL inaugurates the Guy Carbonneau Trophy, awarded to the league's "Best Defensive Forward," and the Kevin Lowe Trophy, awarded to the ...

. Provost died during the

2004–05 NHL lockout The 2004–05 NHL lockout was a labor lockout that resulted in the cancellation of the National Hockey League (NHL) season, which would have been its 88th season of play. The main dispute was the league's desire to implement a salary cap to ...

and was followed in death only five weeks later by Hall of Fame official John D'Amico; both were honoured by their colleagues when games in the NHL resumed, including wearing a patch on their uniforms with his number. Provost's uniform number of 72 is now retired in his memory and no longer issued to NHL linesmen. Provost was also close friends with

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French , , and , : (as evidenced in cricke ...

Alfonso Márquez Alfonso Márquez (born April 12, 1972) is a Mexican umpire in Major League Baseball (MLB) who worked in the National League in 1999 and has worked throughout both major leagues since 2000. He was promoted to crew chief for the 2020 season, beco ...

, who also wears #72 and hung out with Provost on the night of his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Provost, Stephane 1967 births 2005 deaths Ice hockey people from Montreal Motorcycle road incident deaths National Hockey League officials Road incident deaths in Florida