Former Avalanche forward and four-time Stanley Cup champion Claude Lemieux has died at the age of 60, the NHL Alumni said Thursday.

Lemieux helped the Avalanche to the 1996 Stanley Cup championship.

No cause of death has been released.

Lemieux played 1,215 regular season games and produced 786 points, but he was at his best in the Stanley Cup playoffs. In 234 playoff games, he scored 80 goals and picked up 158 points. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1995 with the New Jersey Devils after a 13-goal postseason.

On Oct. 3, 1995, Lemieux was traded to the Avalanche in a three-team deal that included Wendel Clark and Steve Thomas. He made an immediate impact in Colorado. A fierce competitor on the ice, Lemieux brought a winning attitude to the organization, helping them claim the Stanley Cup in his first season in Denver. Lemieux scored 39 goals that season while mostly playing on a line with Peter Forsberg and Valeri Kamensky. The trio was a formidable collective for Colorado throughout the 1995-96 season.

“The National Hockey League mourns the passing of Claude Lemieux, a four-time Stanley Cup champion and one of the greatest big-game players in hockey history,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said.

Bettman added, “Overall, his teams reached the Stanley Cup playoffs in 15 straight seasons; his 234 postseason games played rank sixth in NHL history; and his 80 career playoff goals rank ninth. In recent years, as a player agent, he has represented some of the top stars in the NHL.

“We send our deepest condolences to Claude’s wife, Deborah, and his four children, Brendan, Claudia, Michael and Christopher.”

Lemieux scored 212 points in 297 games in an Avalanche uniform. It was Lemieux’s hit on Kris Draper in the Western Conference finals in 1996 that turned up the temperature in the Avalanche-Red Wings rivalry and sent it into a bloody and intense stratosphere.

Lemieux returned to Denver last December for a reunion with his 1996 Stanley Cup-winning teammates.

After a 21-year playing career in the NHL, Lemieux transitioned into his post-playing career as a successful player agent.