Bill Riley is best known as the third Black player to reach the NHL and one of the first Washington Capitals to wear No. 8 before Alex Ovechkin made it his own.
But Riley, a retired forward whose death at age 75 was announced Sunday, was much more to Frantz Jean and others natives of the Canadian Maritimes. He was a mentor and a trailblazing folk hero who defied the odds of geography and race to play 139 NHL games and later became a coach and general manager in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.