Bruce Boudreau

Bruce Allan Boudreau (born January 9, 1955) is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player.

He previously served as head coach of the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks, Minnesota Wild, and Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (NHL).

As a youth, he played in the 1967 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with the Toronto George Bell minor ice hockey team.

He attended Nelson A. Boylen Collegiate Institute in the 1970s.

Boudreau's junior career was spent with the Toronto Marlboros of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA), for which he averaged over 100 points a season.

He scored 165 points in his final season in juniors, adding 44 points in 27 games en route to captaining the Marlies to a Memorial Cup championship.

He was awarded the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy as the top goal scorer for the 1974–75 OMJHL season.

Boudreau played professional hockey for 17 seasons.

While his major professional career was modest, he had a long career in the minor leagues, and was one of the most prolific minor league scorers of all time, largely in the American Hockey League (AHL).

As a player, Boudreau played professionally for 20 seasons, and was a third round pick (42nd overall) of the Toronto Maple Leafs at the 1975 NHL Amateur Draft.

He played 141 games in the NHL with the Maple Leafs and Chicago Black Hawks, and 30 games in the World Hockey Association (WHA) with the Minnesota Fighting Saints.

Boudreau played most of his career in the American Hockey League (AHL) for various teams where he was known for his goals and point-scoring abilities, recording 316 goals and 483 assists for 799 points in 634 games.

After being drafted to the NHL in the third round, 42nd overall, by the Toronto Maple Leafs, Boudreau could not agree with Toronto on a contract and joined the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA, making his professional debut in 1975.

He played a single season for the Fighting Saints, scoring 3 goals and 6 assists over 30 games.

He spent half that season in the minors, with the Johnstown Jets of the North American Hockey League (NAHL).

Boudreau signed with the Maple Leafs for the 1976–77 season.

He spent most of the first nine seasons of his career with the Maple Leafs playing with their farm teams: Central Hockey League (CHL) teams Dallas Black Hawks and Cincinnati Tigers, and AHL teams New Brunswick Hawks and St. Catharines Saints.

At the start of his professional career, while a member of the Johnstown Jets of the NAHL, Boudreau appeared as an extra in the 1977 hockey film Slap Shot; his apartment at the time was used in the film for Paul Newman's character, coach of the fictional Charlestown Chiefs.

Boudreau is the owner of two junior ice hockey teams, Minnesota Blue Ox and Hershey Cubs, in the United States Premier Hockey League.

He has joined the NHL Network as an analyst when he is not coaching.

Boudreau is married to Crystal, with whom he has one son.

Boudreau has three other children; two sons and a daughter from his first marriage.

His most significant NHL time came in 1980–81; called up as an injury replacement with the Maple Leafs, he scored 10 goals and 14 assists in only 39 games.

During his time in the NHL, Boudreau scored a lifetime 28 goals and 42 assists in 141 games.

In 1982 Boudreau started the Golden Horseshoe Hockey School, a youth summer hockey camp operating out of St. Catharines, Ontario, which he continues to coach with in the off-seasons.

Boudreau has been a supporter of the Toronto Maple Leafs since childhood, and admits that he still cheers for the club when the team does not face off against a squad that he is actively coaching, and watches Maple Leafs games on television when he is able to.

Boudreau is known for his talkative personality, earning him the nickname "Gabby".

Boudreau played parts of eight seasons in the NHL, all but the last – a seven-game stint for the Chicago Black Hawks in 1985–86 season – for the Maple Leafs.

Later in his career, Boudreau signed with the NHL's Chicago Black Hawks, playing two seasons with their AHL farm team Springfield Indians (with whom he won his only league scoring championship in the 1987–88 AHL season).

He later played with the International Hockey League's (IHL) Fort Wayne Komets and the AHL's Nova Scotia Oilers.

He continued on as a minor league star and top scorer right through his final 1991–92 AHL season.

His final game came in Springfield when – after a full IHL season with the Fort Wayne Komets – he was signed by the AHL's Adirondack Red Wings as an emergency injury replacement during their first round Calder Cup playoff series against the Indians.

After his playing career Boudreau went into coaching and won the Jack Adams Award for the NHL's most outstanding head coach in the 2007–08 NHL season during his tenure with the Capitals.

Boudreau is the owner of two junior ice hockey teams, Minnesota Blue Ox and Hershey Cubs, in the United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL).

As of 2021, Boudreau has the second-highest winning percentage in NHL history for a coach who has coached at least 900 games.

Boudreau was born in North York, Toronto, Ontario, the son of Norman Boudreau and Theresa Roy.

In 2009, he released his memoir, Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer.

Boudreau's son, Ben, was named Head Coach of the OHL's Niagara IceDogs in November 2023 after 4 seasons coaching in the ECHL.

After his playing days were over, Boudreau began a highly successful coaching career.

In the minor leagues, Boudreau has coached the Muskegon Fury, Fort Wayne Komets, Mississippi Sea Wolves, Lowell Lock Monsters, Manchester Monarchs, and Hershey Bears.