Former New Jersey Devils conditioning coach passes away at 73

Former New Jersey Devils conditioning coach Vladimir Bure, who won the Stanley Cup with the team in 2000 and 2003, passed away in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday at age 73, per multiple reports.

Bure joined the Devils in the 1999-00 season as a Team Consultant, serving as the team's conditioning coach for four seasons until 2002-03. Before that, the elder Bure coached the Vancouver Canucks in the same capacity from the 1994-95 season to the 1997-1998 season.

The Canucks, of course, were the team Bure's son, Hockey Hall of Famer Pavel Bure, starred on for the majority of his NHL career. When Pavel moved on from the Canucks, so did Vladimir.

Vladimir's other son, Valeri Bure, played 10 seasons in the NHL as a standout forward for the Montreal Canadiens and Calgary Flames. He and his brother Pavel managed to play together on the 2001-02 Florida Panthers.

After winning the Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2003, Vladimir Bure did not immediately resume his coaching career, instead taking over a decade off before returning to the game in 2015-16 as an assistant coach for Belarus in the 2016 IIHF World Championship.

Bure coached Belarus in the Olympic Games qualifier round robin the following year, though they narrowly missed qualification on an overtime loss to Slovenia. Bure would also coach Belarus as an assistant in the 2017 IIHF World Championship before concluding his pro coaching career.

Vladimir Bure, a former Soviet Union Olympic swimmer who won Olympic gold in Barcelona in the 1970 4x100m Men's freestyle, will forever be remembered by the hockey community as a two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Devils, and his long-standing contributions to the game and its players will be etched in history.

We offer our deepest condolences to the Bure brothers and the family and friends of Vladimir.