Gilmour was listed at 5-foot-11 and 177 pounds, but as his nickname, "Killer," showed, he never let his size prevent him from being a force on the ice.

"Even as a kid, I was one of the smaller guys on the ice," the native of Kingston, Ontario, said. "But I was never going to be intimidated or back down. I wanted to win, and I was going to do whatever it took to do it.

"I was a defenseman for most of my minor hockey career, but things clicked once I was shifted to center."

After being selected by Cornwall in the 1980 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft, Gilmour broke his collarbone during his first season and was limited to 35 points in 51 games. He saved his best for the 1981 Memorial Cup, where he scored the winning goal in a 5-2 victory against Kitchener in the final.

Gilmour was passed over in the 1981 NHL Draft, but the St. Louis Blues selected him in the seventh round (No. 134) in the 1982 NHL Draft and immediately sent him back for a third season with Cornwall. Gilmour responded by leading the OHL in goals (70), assists (107) and points (177), and won the Red Tilson award as the league's most outstanding player. His 55-game point streak, which lasted from Oct. 19, 1982, until Feb. 27, 1983, remains an OHL record.

After making his NHL debut on Oct. 24, 1983, Gilmour scored at least 21 goals in each of his first five NHL seasons. In 1986, Blues coach Jacques Demers changed his role from that of a checking center to an offensive one, and he responded by finishing fifth in the League in scoring with 105 points (42 goals, 63 assists).

On Sept. 6, 1988, Gilmour was traded with Mark Hunter, Steve Bozek and Michael Dark to the Calgary Flames for Mike Bullard, Craig Coxe and Tim Corkery. He culminated his first season with the Flames by scoring the Stanley Cup-clinching goal in a 4-2 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at the Forum in Game 6 of the Final.

The Flames sent Gilmour to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Jan. 2, 1992, as part of a 10-player trade. Calgary sent Gilmour, Jamie Macoun, Ric Nattress, Kent Manderville and Rick Wamsley to Toronto for Gary Leeman, Craig Berube, Michel Petit, Alexander Godynyuk and Jeff Reese in what still stands as the largest trade in NHL history.

Gilmour had the best offensive season of his career in 1992-93, setting Toronto single-season records for assists (95) and points (127). He went on to establish a team record for points in the playoffs with 35, helping the Maple Leafs reach the Campbell Conference Final before losing to the Los Angeles Kings in seven games. He won the Selke Trophy as the NHL's top defensive forward and finished second behind Pittsburgh Penguins center Mario Lemieux in voting for the Hart Trophy as League MVP.

The Maple Leafs named Gilmour the 15th captain in team history on Aug. 18, 1994, succeeding Wendel Clark, who had been traded to the Quebec Nordiques. He scored his 1,000th career point in a 6-1 victory against the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 23, 1995.

Gilmour was traded to the New Jersey Devils midway through the 1996-97 season, the start of a six-year journey that featured stints with the Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens. He went back to the Maple Leafs at the 2003 trade deadline but tore the ACL in his left knee in his first game back as the result of a collision with Calgary's Dave Lowry on March 13, 2003.

On Sept. 8, 2003, Gilmour announced his retirement, closing the book on a career that saw him finish with 1,414 points (450 goals, 964 assists) in 1,474 games. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011, and his No. 93 was retired by the Maple Leafs on Oct. 15, 2016.