A Flame From the Past: Bob Boughner

Do you remember Bob Boughner?

Every once in a while, we take a look at a player who once played for the Calgary Flames in a series called “A Flame From the Past”. This player has to have played a significant number of games for the Flames. I’ll put every Flames’ season into a Wheel of Names, and this time, it landed on the 2001-02 season. In this article, we’ll look at Bob Boughner.

Born in Windsor, Ontario, Boughner’s junior career began with the St. Mary’s Lincolns of the Western Junior B Hockey League (now in the Greater Ontario Hockey League). He scored four goals and 22 points in 1987-88, but joined the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for the 1988-89 season, scoring six goals and 21 points in 64 games.

That prompted the Detroit Red Wings to select him 32nd overall in the 1989 draft, although he never played for the team. Boughner played two more seasons with the Greyhounds, winning the J. Ross Robertson Cup and playing in the Memorial Cup. That was the first of three consecutive seasons the Greyhounds played in the Memorial Cup tournament, winning it in 1993.

Boughner didn’t play another junior game after 1990-91, instead joining the ECHL’s Toledo Storm in 1991-92, scoring three goals and 13 points. He also played an American Hockey League game that season with the Adirondack Red Wings. Joining the AHL team full-time in 1992-93, the right-shot defenceman scored a goal and 17 points in 69 games, followed by eight goals and 22 points in 1993-94.

The right-shot defenceman never got a look with the Red Wings, joining the Florida Panthers organization in 1994-95. In the International Hockey League, the defenceman scored two goals and 16 points. Boughner returned for the 1995-96 season, scoring two goals and 17 points in 46 games, but was traded to the Buffalo Sabres in February 1996.

That was easily the best thing for his career, as Boughner made his National Hockey League debut after the trade, picking up an assist in the 31 games he played. Boughner never played another game in the minors, playing 77 games with the Sabres in 1996-97, scoring a goal and eight points while picking up a career-high 225 penalty minutes. The defenceman even picked up an assist in the 11 playoff games he appeared in.

In 1997-98, Boughner played 69 games, scoring a goal and four points with 165 penalty minutes. He also played 14 playoff games, where he picked up four assists. Throughout his career, Boughner tended to play for teams that were just on the cusp of attending the Stanley Cup Finals, or shortly after visiting it.

The Sabres fell to the Dallas Stars in the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals, but Boughner was selected by the Nashville Predators in the expansion draft. In 79 games, the defenceman scored three goals and 15 points, with those three goals being tied for the most he’d ever had in the NHL.

Boughner played 62 games with the Predators in 1999-2000, scoring two goals and six points, but was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins ahead of the trade deadline, scoring a goal in 11 games. The defenceman played an additional 11 games with the Penguins in the playoffs, picking up two assists.

After scoring a goal and four points in 58 games with the Penguins during the 2000-01 regular season, Boughner played a career-high 18 games in a single post-season run. That was because the sixth-seeded Penguins beat the third-seeded Washington Capitals, then beat his former team, the Sabres, in seven games. Eventually, they lost to the powerhouse New Jersey Devils.

During the 2001 off-season, Boughner signed with the Flames, where he scored two goals and six points in 79 games, serving as the team’s co-captain that season. Craig Conroy took over as the full-time captain in 2002-03, but Boughner posted a career-high three goals and 17 points the following season. Unfortunately, he missed out on the Flames’ Stanley Cup run in 2004, instead signing with the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Hurricanes were two seasons removed from a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, but Boughner played just 43 games with the team that’d eventually won the 2006 Stanley Cup, picking up five assists before being traded to the Colorado Avalanche. Just like in 1999-2000, Boughner played 11 regular season games (where he was held pointless) and 11 post-season games, where he matched his career-high of four points.

Like all NHL players, Boughner didn’t play an NHL game during the 2004-05 lockout, nor did he play overseas. He returned to the Avalanche in 2005-06, playing 41 games where he scored a goal and seven points, his final season in the league.

Boughner stuck around in hockey, immediately jumping behind the bench. He got his coaching start with his hometown Windsor Spitfires in 2006-07, and after two years, they won back-to-back J. Ross Robertson Cups and back-to-back Memorial Cups. Boughner has been the head coach of the San Jose Sharks and Florida Panthers, while serving as an assistant or associate coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings, and, currently, the New York Islanders.