Players You Didn’t Realize Played for the Boston Bruins

The Boston Bruins have seen a lot of players come to wear the Spoked B on their chest over the course of their 100-year history. That number is 1,061, to be exact, as of Jan. 25, 2024.

Of those 1,061, an even number of 950 are skaters, while 111 of them are goaltenders.

With the Bruins having such a storied history featuring 76 playoff appearances and six Stanley Cups in 99 total seasons to this point, a lot of players have come via trade deadline trade, waiver pick-up, or free agent signing.

I will go over a couple of short-lived Bruins who had forgettable tenures in Bean Town but successful tenures elsewhere.

Let’s jump right into it.

Michael Nylander

Father of Toronto Maple Leafs superstar William Nylander, Michael spent 15 regular season games with the Bruins in 2003-04. He was acquired from the Washington Capitals near the trade deadline for a second-round pick and a fourth-round pick.

Nylander proved to be a positive addition to the team, scoring a goal and 12 points in the regular season before scoring six points in six games in the playoffs. If you want to bet on players who can score as much as Nylander did in his prime, you can find Massachusetts online betting sites information here.

He signed with the New York Rangers after the NHL lockout of 2004 and had the two best seasons of his career, totaling 49 goals and 162 points in 160 games. After returning to the Capitals in free agency and sustaining multiple serious injuries, Nylander retired in 2011.

Alex Auld

Alex Auld joined the Bruins in a trade from the then Phoenix Coyotes for winger Nate DiCasmirro and their 2009 fifth-round pick on Dec. 6, 2007.

After arriving in Boston at 27 years old, Auld went 19-9-7 with a .919 save percentage and a 2.32 goals-against average, which was his best season since being traded from the Vancouver Canucks to the Florida Panthers in the blockbuster Roberto Luongo trade.

He did not play in the playoffs that year, backing up Tim Thomas in a first-round defeat at the hands of the rival Montreal Canadiens. Auld signed a two-year contract with the Ottawa Senators that summer before getting traded in the next offseason to the Dallas Stars.

He bounced around to a few more teams after that, but he could not reach the heights he flashed as a rookie in Vancouver.

Butch Goring

New York Islanders legend and playoff hero Butch Goring played out the final season of his career with the Boston Bruins.

After winning four Stanley Cups in six seasons with the Islanders — and putting up an impressive 275 goals and 659 points in 11 seasons with the Los Angeles Kings — Goring signed a contract with the Bruins following his release from Long Island.

He put up 13 goals and 34 points in 39 games before bizarrely being named their head coach midway through the season and served in that position for a year and a half.

Goring briefly played for the AHL’s Nova Scotia Oilers in 1987 before hanging up the skates for good and pursuing a coaching career before becoming a fixture on Islanders home broadcasts.