Stan Mikita spent his entire career with the Chicago Blackhawks. (USATSI)
Stan Mikita spent his entire career with the Chicago Blackhawks. (USATSI)

As the Chicago Blackhawks try to win the sixth Stanley Cup in franchise history -- and the third in six years -- on Monday night, one of the greatest players in team history, Stan Mikita, has no idea that it's happening. 

Mikita, who has been diagnosed with suspected dementia with Lewy Body, has been on a "steep and sudden decline" since September and has been robbed of all of his memories, as outlined in a heartbreaking piece by Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune on Monday. 

"His mind is completely gone," Mikita's wife, Jill, told Kuc. "I don't like to use that term but there's no other way to describe it."

One of the best players in NHL history and a member of the Chicago Blackhawks' 1961 Stanley Cup winning team, Mikita is still employed by the Blackhawks organization as an ambassador but has had to spend his days and nights in a Chicago facility since January.

More, from the Tribune:

There were signs in recent years that something was amiss. Mikita would forget where he left his car keys or cell phone. He once got lost driving home from Medinah Country Club, a trek he had made many times. But it was in September of last year when Jill Mikita and daughter Jane said the forgetfulness increased.

"The hardest thing was in the beginning," Jill says. "You saw him slipping away. Every day you would see him and there would be less and less in his eyes. They were just going dead."

Stan attended and skated at the Hawks' annual Christmas party Dec. 17 and a week later he was with Jill at their winter home in Florida when she "noticed a pretty sharp decline."

The other big development in the story (which is worth reading in its entirety) is that Mikita's family will not be joining any of the concussion and CTE lawsuits being brought forward against the NHL by former players and the estates of deceased players. Mikita's wife told Kuc "We have no intentions to sue, none whatsoever. I don't think there's anybody to blame. It's just the way it is."

His daughter added more:

"If he does have CTE, who cares? It's not going to change anything," Jane Mikita says. "He played a sport and a game that he loved and that provided us as a family with a wonderful upbringing. Hockey was good to Stan and Stan was good to hockey. There is no finger to be pointed. He knew what he was doing lacing up those skates every time he got on the ice."

Instead, the Mikita family will honor his wish from several years ago to donate his brain for research upon his death. 

Mikita spent his entire NHL career with the Blackhawks between 1958 and 1980, scoring 541 goals and recording 926 assists in 1,394 career games.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983.

He is still the franchise's all-time leader in games played, assists and points. Only Bobby Hull (601) scored more goals for the team.