Ed Kea
Encyclopedia
Adriaan Jozef Kea is a province situated on the North Sea in the northwest part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is Haarlem and its largest city is Amsterdam.-Geography:...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
- August 31, 1999) was a former Dutch-Canadian ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
defenceman.
Born in Weesp
Weesp
Weesp is a town and a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It has a population of 17,533 .Weesp lies next to the rivers de Vecht and Smal Weesp and also next to the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal. It is in an area called the "Vechtstreek"...
but raised in Collingwood, Ontario
Collingwood, Ontario
Collingwood is a town in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it is situated on Nottawasaga Bay at the southern point of Georgian Bay.-History:...
(his family moved to Canada when he was four), Kea started his National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
career with the Atlanta Flames
Atlanta Flames
The Atlanta Flames were a professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA from 1972 to 1980. The team, a member of the National Hockey League , was relocated to Calgary, Alberta, Canada for the start of the 1980–81 NHL season and were re-named the Calgary Flames. The NHL returned to the...
. He also played with the St. Louis Blues
St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The team is named after the famous W. C. Handy song "St. Louis Blues", and plays in the 19,150-seat Scottrade...
. His career lasted from 1974 to 1983.
He was playing for the Blues' Central Hockey League affiliate in Salt Lake City in 1983 when he suffered severe head trauma when he fell and hit his head on the ice during a game. The injury left him physically and mentally disabled. Because he was playing in a minor league game, National Hockey League benefits for catastrophic injuries did not apply to his case, and he and his family struggled financially for several years because he was unable to hold a job.
On September 1, 1999, Kea accidentally drowned in the swimming pool of his family's summer home in Ontario, Canada. He was 51.
Kea is the first Dutch-born player to score a point in the NHL.