This is the sixth installment of our Celebrating 20 series where we profile key players from each of the team’s 20 seasons in the Western Hockey League. Join us in celebrating 20 years of Hitmen hockey! The best there is! The best there was! The best there ever will be!
Johnny Boychuk played a lot of post-season hockey in the WHL, but a single goal sticks out in his mind.
Boychuk, now a bona fide NHL defenceman with the New York Islanders, never missed the playoffs in his five-year major-junior career.
With a total of 42 WHL post-season games under his belt with the Calgary Hitmen and Moose Jaw Warriors, the Edmonton product’s favourite memory remains sneaking an overtime marker past goaltender Donald Choukalos to win Game 3 of the Hitmen 2001 first-round series with the Regina Pats.
“I remember when we knocked out Regina when they were hosting the Memorial Cup that year,” Boychuk recalled of the series, which the Hitmen went on to win 4-2. “It was amazing because I got hurt and came back to score the OT winner.”
The game-winning goal at the Saddledome was one of two playoff markers Boychuk knocked in for the Hitmen during his tenure with the team between 2000-2003.
In 177 games with the Hitmen, Boychuk put up 20 goals, 58 assists and 204 penalty minutes before he was dealt to the Warriors midway through the 2002-2003 WHL campaign.
As he removed his gear following an Islanders practice at the Saddledome, just feet away from where he once laced up his skates as a budding Hitmen, the 6’2”, 225-pound blueline veteran said he’ll never forget that faithful Monday night against the Pats.
“Getting mauled after I scored was pretty special,” he said.
The Colorado Avalanche 61st overall selection in the second round of the 2002 NHL Draft, Boychuk was a fan-favourite in Calgary before he was shipped to the Warriors with whom he played one more WHL season before graduating to the professional level.
Following four American Hockey League seasons with four different teams, Boychuk made his NHL debut in 2008 with the Avs before eventually becoming a permanent fixture of the Boston Bruins defensive corps in 2010.
Boychuk reached hockey’s pinnacle in 2011 when he won the Stanley Cup with the B’s.
As they worked their way through the Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning and then finally the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL final, Boychuk utilized his extensive post-season experience to tally three goals and six assists in 25 playoff games to help the team win their first championship since 1972.
More than 350 games patrolling NHL bluelines later, the 30-year-old reflects back on the world-class junior organization that got him and countless other Hitmen alumni to The Show.
“You see what they’ve done and their success,” Boychuk said of the Hitmen. “My first game was a banner raising. To develop guys properly is not easy and they do that. When I was here I learned a lot and carried it through the years.”
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