Yvon Pedneault, a great Quebec sports journalist, died at the age of 77.
According to what Le Journal de Montréal reports, Mr. Pedneault died on the night of Friday to Saturday, in the palliative care unit of the Charles-Lemoyne hospital, following a dazzling cancer.
Mr. Pedneault has worked in the Quebec media world for nearly 60 years, whether on radio, television or in major daily newspapers. He began his career at Progrès-Dimanche du Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean in 1965, before covering the Canadiens for Le Montréal-Matin and La Presse from 1969 to 1979. He then made a first appearance at the Journal de Montréal, until 1989. He still published columns there until very recently.
Mr. Pedneault also made a name for himself as an analyst of the Canadiens’ games. He joined the broadcast team of La Soirée du hockey at Radio-Canada in 1994, then that of TQS in 1997, before reuniting with Pierre Houde at RDS in 1998.
Reached by phone, Mr. Houde said he has “very good personal and professional memories” of his former analyst, with whom he worked for a total of 15 years. He emphasizes, among other things, his intensity, his “thirst for excellence” and his rigor.
“I think I was a very good dance partner for Yvon because neither he nor I were ex-players or ex-instructors. We were more like old-school communicators. Yvon is a real journalist, pure and hard. […] We had no trouble getting along because we were professional communicators. »
In the early days of RDS, the two men shared a “desire for excellence”. From their first game, they received “great reviews,” Houde recalled.
“It was the launching pad, our springboard,” he continues. In the first five-year cycle, we developed a very close relationship. We had always left during the holidays, our wives accompanied us. Otherwise, we couldn’t see them! Sometimes we would leave on Christmas Eve, because we weren’t traveling with the team, and we would leave until January 12. On free days, we went to visit such and such a place. We really had a nice closeness. »
Yvon Pedneault, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1998, joined TVA Sports as an analyst and commentator when the channel began in 2011. In parallel, he wrote a regular column on BPM Sports.
“Yvon was an important member of the TVA Sports family from the very beginning of the channel,” TVA Sports CEO Louis-Philippe Neveu said in a statement.
“I’ve never met anyone who loved hockey as much as he did,” Journal de Montreal editor-in-chief Dany Doucet said in the article announcing Yvon Pedneault’s death. He could listen to a game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Vancouver Canucks on a Tuesday night and it wasn’t just for work. He knew all the players and all the organizations. It is because of this passion that he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. »
“BPM Sports is in mourning,” added Yves Bombardier, Programming Director of BPM Sports. A member of our family has just left us. Yvon has captivated generations. We offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends. We will pay tribute to him, on air, all day Monday. »
Réjean Tremblay has a lot to say about Yvon Pedneault, his “old boyfriend”. The two men, both from Saguenay, rubbed shoulders for many years on the cover of the Canadian. They still spoke to each other regularly.
When asked what is his most precious memory of Yvon Pedneault, Mr. Tremblay exclaims: “We had too many!” “.
“He helped me a lot because I didn’t speak English,” he recalls. The number of times I said, what did he say? There, he translated it for me. »
“Yvon, I loved him! he says in conclusion.
The death of Yvon Pedneault obviously earned a wave of testimonies from his former colleagues on social networks.