Friends of Claude Lemieux are speaking publicly about the personal difficulties that reportedly weighed on the former NHL star in the months leading up to his death, shedding new light on what they describe as a painful final period, according to The New York Post.

Lemieux, 60, was found early Thursday morning inside a warehouse at Andros Home, the family furniture business in Lake Park, Florida. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office confirmed his death was suicide by hanging, as first reported by The New York Post. One of his sons discovered him at 3:32 a.m. after the family became worried when he did not return home the night before.

The news has shocked the hockey world, especially given its timing just days after Lemieux received a standing ovation from more than 21,000 fans at Montreal’s Bell Centre, where he carried the torch before Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final on May 25.

Two long-standing personal struggles, according to friends

Montreal hockey columnist Rejean Tremblay, who knew Lemieux for three decades, told The New York Post that two major issues defined the emotional weight of Lemieux’s later life.

One was his long-standing exclusion from the Hockey Hall of Fame. Lemieux, a four-time Stanley Cup winner with Montreal (1986), New Jersey (1995, 2000) and Colorado (1996), recorded 80 goals and 158 points in 234 playoff games, but was never inducted after retiring in 2009.

“He always lived this as an injustice, a heavy burden to bear,” Tremblay said. “The sense of rejection ran deeper than one might have imagined. He took it very hard.”

The second issue, according to Tremblay, was a prolonged estrangement from his children.

“It hurt him tremendously,” he added.

Tremblay also suggested that Lemieux’s emotional return to Montreal may have unintentionally intensified those feelings.

“It’s possible that surge of love, that wave of love on Monday evening, triggered an emotion that was too intense,” he said. “It might have reawakened old pains, old suffering.”

Friends describe a difficult final period

Colombe Lacroix, a close family friend and widow of former Colorado Avalanche general manager Pierre Lacroix, told The New York Post that Lemieux had been struggling emotionally, though his family did not anticipate what was to come.

“They didn’t expect that at all, they never saw it coming,” she said. “He’s been going through a difficult time, he was depressed.”

Lemieux’s son Brendan, a former NHL forward, was the one who found his father’s body, according to reports cited by The New York Post.

“Brendan is completely destroyed,” Lacroix added.

In the aftermath, tributes have continued across the NHL. The Carolina Hurricanes honored Lemieux before Game 5 on Friday night. Goalie Frederik Andersen, one of Lemieux’s former clients from his player agency work, became emotional after Carolina’s 6–1 win that sent the team to the Stanley Cup Final. He said Lemieux’s final message to him was simple.

“Just go get it,” Lemieux told Andersen, according to TMZ Sports.

Lemieux is survived by his wife Deborah and their four children: Brendan, Claudia, Michael, and Christopher.