A Flame from the Past: Joe Colborne

Do you remember Joe Colborne?

Every week, we’ll look at a forgotten Calgary Flames player in the weekly series “A Flame From the Past.” Of course, the player had to have played a significant number of games for the Flames – at least a full season. Each week, I’ll put every Flames season (since moving to Calgary) in the Wheel of Names. This week, it landed on the 2015-16 season, with the player we’ll look at in today’s article being Joe Colborne.

Born in Calgary on Jan. 30, 1990, Colborne began his junior career in the Alberta Junior Hockey League with the Camrose Kodiaks in 2006-07, scoring 20 goals and 48 points in 53 games. The following season, the left-shot centre scored 33 goals and 90 points in 55 games, along with eight goals and 16 points in 18 post-season games. In the 2008 draft, the Boston Bruins selected him 16th overall.

Colborne went the collegiate path, playing for the University of Denver in 2008-09 and 2009-10. His first season saw him score 10 goals and 31 points in 40 games, followed by a 22-goal, 41-point season in 39 games in his sophomore season. To end the 2009-10 season, Colborne played six games in the American Hockey League, where he picked up two assists.

His first full professional season was in 2010, playing 55 games for the AHL’s Providence Bruins, where he scored 12 goals and 26 points. Before the trade deadline, they sent Colborne to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Tomáš Kaberle, which worked out quite well for the Bruins as they won the Stanley Cup in 2011.

Colborne played 20 games for the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, scoring eight goals and 16 points in 20 games, making his Leafs’ debut toward the end of the season, where he picked up an assist in one game.

The Calgary-native once again mainly played in the AHL in 2011-12, scoring 16 goals and 39 points in 65 games with the Marlies, but played 10 games in the National Hockey League, where he scored a goal and picked up five points in 10 games. It was much of the same the following season, as Colborne scored 14 goals and 42 points in 65 AHL games, playing just five games in the NHL.

Before the start of the 2013-14 season, the Flames sent a fourth-round pick to the Leafs to acquire their hometown talent, the best possible thing that could’ve happened to Colborne. In his first season with the Flames, he scored 10 goals and 28 points in 80 games, his career-best at that point. In 2014-15, Colborne scored eight goals and 28 points in just 64 games. In the 2015 post-season, Colborne scored a goal and had three points in 11 games.

Colborne’s best National Hockey League season came in 2015-16, where he scored 19 goals and 44 points in 73 games. He finished sixth in points and fifth in goals that season. The Flames shockingly didn’t give him a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent, signing with the Colorado Avalanche for the 2017-17 season.

In his first game, Colborne scored a hat trick, but finished with just one goal in his last 61 NHL games, finishing the season with four goals and eight points in 62 games. Before the 2017-18 season, Colborne suffered a back injury and never played another NHL game. His only action that season came with the Avalanche’s AHL team, scoring two goals and four points in 13 games.

After suffering a concussion on Nov. 10, 2017, Colborne’s final hockey game was the following day, before retiring.