Officially, Mark Slavin was an equipment rep for Easton Hockey.

But he was so much more than that to past and present members of the Vancouver Canucks.

He was their good friend, a guy they shared countless coffees with at Starbucks, confided in and trusted.

And Friday, the Canucks family was mourning his loss.

Slavin, who was 58, died late Thursday afternoon, two weeks after suffering a brain aneurysm at his Vancouver home.

Defenceman Kevin Bieksa, perhaps his closest friend on the team, was by his side when Slavin was removed from life support and died peacefully.

“He was just such a good and loyal friend,” Bieksa said Friday. “You could sit and have a coffee together and talk about everything and anything. He could keep a secret, he could give advice, he could sit there and listen. He always had time for his friends.

“I felt like I could call him or text him anytime of the day and he would meet me for a coffee, meet for lunch or breakfast or something like that. You could just talk to him. He was a simple guy, he appreciated the simple things in life, like sitting on the corner at Starbucks just watching the people go by, just having a coffee and talking about things.”

Slavin’s Vancouver office was the hallway outside the Canucks’ dressing room at Rogers Arena. When he wasn’t at the rink, he was often spending time with the players away from it.

He, Bieksa, Alex Edler, Chris Tanev and others met regularly many mornings over coffee at a Starbucks near the rink or lunched at the Cactus Club in Yaletown.

“Just a good guy, very laid back, very easy to talk to and hang out with,” Edler said Friday. “I think that’s why everyone kind of got to know him. He was a guy who was always there and happy to grab a lunch or coffee. He has been good friends to a lot of guys over the years and he was very close to me. It’s very sad. We’ll always remember him.”

It was after Slavin had missed one of their get-togethers two weeks ago that Bieksa and others felt something was wrong. Slavin always promptly answered texts and phone calls, but he was not returning messages.

Bieksa and Edler convinced Vancouver police to knock down the door of his condo. Inside, they found Slavin, who had suffered the aneurysm several hours earlier.

In the ensuing two weeks, Slavin rallied slightly, then suffered a setback.

With no immediate family nearby, Bieksa played a major role in his care and spent countless hours with him. Many other members of the Canucks’ organization visited him in hospital.

“We were just trying to do our best to help him out,” Bieksa said. “To see somebody suffer is no fun at all. I think we all thought he was going to fight through it.”

Former Canuck Roberto Luongo called Slavin one of his best friends. When Luongo and the Florida Panthers visited Vancouver in January, Luongo spent most of the three-day visit hanging out with Slavin.

“First and foremost he was just a good guy,” Luongo said in a phone interview Friday. “He was someone I spent a lot of time with, whether it was breakfast or after practice, we’d go have lunch and a lot of coffees. He was just a good guy and he was always somebody that had your back. He was a loyal friend and it’s tough to find somebody like that nowadays.”