An award-winning coach in the National Hockey League, Bruce Boudreau was a dynamic scorer during his playing days in the AHL and a championship-winning coach behind an American Hockey League bench.
A Toronto native, Boudreau was drafted by his hometown Maple Leafs in 1975 and made his AHL debut with the Leafs’ affiliate in Moncton, New Brunswick, during the 1978-79 season. A year later, his team-high 36 goals and 90 points helped the Hawks to a berth in the Calder Cup Finals.
With the St. Catharines Saints in 1982-83, Boudreau engaged in one of the most heated scoring races in league history. He finished second to Ross Yates but still bettered the previous AHL scoring record with 122 points, and he hit the 50-goal plateau with a hat trick on the final day of the season.
Boudreau joined the Baltimore Skipjacks in 1984-85 and made a return trip to the Finals, then spent two seasons in Halifax with the Nova Scotia Oilers. In 1987-88, Boudreau went to Springfield and had another record-setting season, leading the AHL in scoring with 116 points and becoming the second player ever with three 100-point campaigns.
Boudreau’s playing career ended during the 1992 postseason with a stint for the Adirondack Red Wings, who were on their way to a Calder Cup championship. He immediately joined the coaching ranks and returned to the AHL with the Los Angeles Kings organization, spending two seasons with the Lowell Lock Monsters (1999-2001) and four with the Manchester Monarchs (2001-05) and qualifying for the postseason each year.
Boudreau was hired by the Washington Capitals in 2005 and coached the Hershey Bears to a Calder Cup championship in his first season in Chocolatetown. That was followed by the winningest regular season in the Bears’ long and proud history and a return to the Finals in 2006-07.
In November 2007, with 340 career AHL coaching victories under his belt, Boudreau was promoted to Washington and penned another chapter to his remarkable story, leading the Capitals to a division title and earning the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s coach of the year.
Boudreau’s 483 career assists and 799 career points both rank 11th in AHL history, while his 316 goals are good for 14th place. Of the 72 players in AHL history with at least 500 career points, Boudreau ranks second with an average of 1.26 points per game.