Bob Boughner - Playing Career

Playing Career

Boughner grew up in the Windsor area playing minor hockey and played as a 15-year old with the Belle River Canadians Jr. C club. He moved away at age 16 to play for the St. Marys Lincolns Jr. B team in 1987–88. One of Boughner's teammates with the Lincolns was current NHL head coach Dan Bylsma. The following year Boughner was drafted by the OHL's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds with the 6th overall selection.

Boughner was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2nd round (32nd overall) of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, after a successful junior career with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. With the additions of Vladimir Konstantinov and Nicklas Lidström, who were drafted that same year, to the Detroit blueline in the early 1990s, Boughner received little opportunity to move beyond the organization's AHL farm team in Adirondack. Boughner signed as a free agent with the Florida Panthers in 1994 but was relegated to the minors until a trade brought him to the Buffalo Sabres in 1996. With the Sabres, he was given the opportunity to play regularly, and he was a solid physical component on the Buffalo blueline for two and a half years until he was claimed by the expansion Nashville Predators in the 1998 NHL Expansion Draft. He later played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Calgary Flames, Carolina Hurricanes, and Colorado Avalanche before retiring in 2006.

He served as co-captain of the Calgary Flames in the latter half of 2001-02, in addition to serving as the Executive Vice-President of the NHLPA from 2003 to 2006. Though somewhat small for an NHL enforcer, Boughner was given the nickname 'The Boogieman' for his fearless style of play, and he became one of the NHL's most respected 'tough guys' of his era, registering 1,449 penalty minutes in 630 career NHL games.