Family decides to publish memoir Probert worked on before his sudden death

FILE - Detroit Wings Bob Probert checks the scoreboard out from the bench during a NHL hockey game with the Dallas Stars in Jan. 1994. The family of Bob Probert has decided to go ahead with a memoir the longtime NHL enforcer was working on prior to his death. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Detroit Free Press, Julian H. Gonzalez

TORONTO - The family of Bob Probert has decided to go ahead with a memoir the longtime NHL enforcer was working on prior to his death.

"Tough Guy," due to be published Oct. 26, will recount his career with the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks when he was one of the most feared players in the game, and also delve into his off-ice troubles.

Probert was co-writing the book with Kirstie McLellan Day before he suffered a heart attack and died last month.

"He was really excited and happy about the opportunity to tell it like it really was—behind the headlines," Dani Probert, his widow, said in a statement released by publisher HarperCollinsCanada. "After much deliberation, my family and I have decided to fulfil Bob's dream and publish the book."