When you think of Barry Melrose, you think of the mullet, the suits, the voice, and the personality that made him instantly recognizable to generations of hockey fans. Melrose, who passed away Wednesday at age 70, leaves a void in the hockey world that is as big as his persona. Long before millions knew him from television, he wore the Winged Wheel of the Detroit Red Wings.

Melrose wasn't a star. He was a rugged defenseman out of Kelvington, Saskatchewan, who survived through toughness and hockey intelligence. Across his 300-game NHL career, Melrose had 33 points and 728 penalty minutes. He played 21 games for the Red Wings in 1983-84 and another 14 in 1985-86.

After retiring from the Adirondack Red Wings in 1986-87, Melrose would transition into coaching thanks to former Red Wings general manager Jimmy Devellano, according to Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times. "Barry was determined he wanted to be a coach," Devellano said at the time. "He really took a good approach. He wasn't scared to get his hands dirty and start at the bottom at Medicine Hat."

Melrose may have started at the bottom with Medicine Hat, but he quickly took them to the top. In his first and only season, he led the Tigers to a Memorial Cup championship in 1987-88. But his work with Adirondack put him on the hockey radar. After winning a Calder Cup championship with the Red Wings of the AHL in 1991-92, the NHL came calling. The Los Angeles Kings were looking for a new head coach after relieving Tom Webster of his duties after the 1991-92 season and hired the then-unknown 36-year-old Melrose.

After finishing the 1992-93 regular season with a pedestrian 39-35-10 record, Melrose would take Wayne Gretzky and the Kings on a Cinderella run through the 1992 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. After disposing of the Calgary Flames in six games, the Vancouver Canucks in six games, and the Toronto Maple Leafs in a hard-fought-seven-game series, the Kings entered their first Stanley Cup Final against Patrick Roy and the famed Montreal Canadiens.

After jumping out to a 1-0 series lead, unfortunately, Roy and some bad luck in the form of Marty McSorley's illegal stick late in Game 2 turned out to be the Kings' downfall. Roy would backstop the Canadiens to three consecutive overtime victories before putting the Kings to bed for good in Game 5, when Montreal defeated the Kings 4-1 to win the 24th Stanley Cup championship.

ESPN reporters Steve Levy (left) and Barry Melrose Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images / USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

After the Kings fired him in 1994-95, Melrose began what would become his most memorable career yet. ESPN hired him to be a hockey analyst and his boisterous style is what would endear him to hockey fans around the world. Melrose became one of the network's defining hockey voices.

He spent 27 years with ESPN while taking a short hiatus to coach the Tampa Bay Lightning for 16 games in 2008-09 before returning to the network in 2009. When Melrose retired in 2023 due to Parkinson's disease, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told NHL.com that Melrose's personality and style had made hockey "bigger, more exciting and more entertaining."

Barry Melrose's time in Detroit represented only a small portion of his remarkable hockey life, but his impact stretched far beyond the games he played in a Red Wings sweater. He was a player, a coach, a teacher, and for millions of fans, one of the unmistakable voices and faces of the sport. The mullet made him recognizable, but his passion for hockey made him unforgettable. Melrose spent a lifetime giving something back to the game he loved, and hockey was better because Barry Melrose was part of it.