Ed Kea

This defensive defenseman was born in Weesp, Holland, the only Dutch born player in the NHL to this date. He was the youngest of 14 children and moved to Canada with his parents when he was 4-years old. Ed is Jeff Beukeboom's uncle who is Joe Nieuwendyk's cousin.

Ed was a big (6'3" and 200 Ibs) defenseman who wasn't very fast but who played very well positionally. He played his junior hockey for the Collingwood Kings and was discovered by Fred Creighton who saw him play in the EHL. He then recommended the Atlanta Flames to take a look at Ed. Ed was signed as a free agent by Atlanta on October 6, 1972.

Ed didn't make the team in his first year and was sent down to Omaha Knights (CHL). He continued to play in the CHL the next season as well, although he had a three game stint with Atlanta. When the 1974-75 season began he was a regular with Atlanta. Ed played some steady hockey with the Flames until the 1978-79 season. At that time he was only one of two players on the Atlanta team who remained from the initial Flames training camp in 1972 (together with goalie Dan Bouchard).

Ed was traded to St.Louis together with Don Laurence and a draft pick for Garry Unger. He played four very steady but unspectacular seasons in St.Louis. During the 1982-83 season Ed had decided that he would retire after the season.He got sent down to Salt Lake of the CHL in the mid of the 1982-83 season.

Four weeks from retirement tragedy struck. During a CHL game with Salt Lake against Tulsa Oilers, Ed and two opponents, Mike Backman and George McPhee chased the puck along the boards and converged on the puck at the same time. McPhee threw a devastating, but clean,check on Ed. Ed banged his head into Backman's shoulder and flew backwards. As he went down, his head smashed into the top of the boards and he fell forward face-first onto the ice. By the time the trainer could reach Ed, the defenseman had blood coming out of his ears. He was carted off on a stretcher, hisplaying days had come to an end. Ed needed a life-saving operation and spend two months in the hospital. He eventually recovered after a very long time.

It was a sad ending to the career of this deeply religious man. His head injury caused a lot of debates around the pro hockey leagues when it came to helmets. Ed was not wearing one when the injury happened and a lot of people said that the injury would have been avoided if he had used one. In the end the main thing was that he survived this horrible accident.

Ed played a total of 583 NHL games plus 32 playoff games, scoring 175 points and 6 more in the playoffs.
On August 31, 1999, Ed died at his summer home in Ontario. He had drowned in an accident. He was survived by his wife Jennifer and 4 children.

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