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Cancer may have taken Winnipeg hockey legend Ab McDonald, but it can’t take the legacy, the friendships or the memories he leaves behind.

One of Winnipeg’s all-time hockey greats, McDonald died, Tuesday, at the age of 82.

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The four-time Stanley Cup winner played 15 seasons in the NHL, before joining his hometown Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association in 1972, becoming the team’s first captain and scoring the first goal in franchise history.

Those who saw him play can consider themselves lucky, and those who knew him even luckier.

Friend and former teammate Joe Daley was one of them.

“You really wouldn’t know what Ab did for a living, if you didn’t know – he was so humble,” Daley, a fellow Winnipegger, said, Wednesday. “I never, ever heard him brag about the Stanley Cups or anything like that. He was never bigger than the game or the team he was with.

“I played with him in the minors, I played with him in the NHL, I played with him in the WHA – and he was always the same. He was, ‘OK, what can I do to contribute? Who can I help today?’ ”