Ken Dryden, an elite, erudite National Hockey League goaltender who led the Montreal Canadiens to six Stanley Cup championships in the 1970s before moving on to careers as an author, lawyer, television analyst, team executive and member of the Canadian Parliament, died on Friday in Toronto. He was 78.
The N.H.L. announced the death, saying the cause was cancer.
“Few Canadians have given more, or stood taller for our country,” Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, said in a statement, adding that when he was growing up in Edmonton, Alberta, Dryden had inspired him to be a goalie, both in high school and later at Harvard.