Mike Bullard

Mike Bullard
Date of birth	March 10, 1961
place of birth	Ottawa , Ontario , Canada
size	180 cm
Weight	93 kg
position	center
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	1980 , 1st lap, 9th position Pittsburgh Penguins
Career stations
1978-1981	Brantford Alexander
1981-1986	Pittsburgh Penguins
1986-1988	Calgary Flames
1988-1990	Philadelphia Flyers
1990-1991	HC Ambrì-Piotta
1991-1992	Toronto Maple Leafs
1992-1993	SC Rapperswil-Jona
1993-1998	EV Landshut
1998-2000	Polar bears Berlin
2000-2003	Schwenninger Wild Wings

Michael Brian Bullard (born March 10, 1961 in Ottawa , Ontario ) is a former Canadian ice hockey player who was active in the National Hockey League , the National League A and the German Ice Hockey League . His position was a center forward . He has been a trainer since the end of his career.

Career

As a player

Bullard began his career in 1978 in the Canadian Junior League Ontario Hockey League with the Brantford Alexanders . After he was able to achieve 99 points scorer in his first season as a player in the Alexanders and one year later he was one of the best strikers in the OHL with 150 points, the talent scouts of the National Hockey League took notice of the left-handed shooter. During the 1980 NHL Entry Draft , it was the management of the Pittsburgh Penguins that selected him as the ninth player in the first round. He stayed one more season in the OHL before moving to the Penguins in the NHL in 1981.

There he completed his first 23 games in the North American league in the 1980/81 season . Bullard had a good rookie season as a result. He was able to score 67 times in 85 games. In the years that followed, he quickly assumed a leadership role and was team captain between 1984 and 1987 . When he was able to improve his performance and was one of the NHL's attackers with the highest points in 1986, the then Canadian national coach nominated him for the Canadian national ice hockey team , with which he took part in the 1986 World Cup. In the end, he finished third with Canada.

On November 12, 1986, those responsible for the Penguins exchanged him for Dan Quinn and Bullard moved to Calgary to the Flames there . At his new club, however, he was only under contract for two years. In his last season, 1987/88 , he was able to set up his career best in the NHL with 103 points in 79 games. Nevertheless, the Calgary Flames traded him in early September 1988 together with Craig Coxe and Tim Corkery to the St. Louis Blues , which in return received Mark Hunter , Doug Gilmour , Steve Bozek and Michael Dark . He also left the Blues after a short time and was handed over to the Philadelphia Flyers for Peter Zezel by his club on November 29, 1988, after only three months . Despite everything, Bullard was able to convince again in Philadelphia and ended the 1988/89 season there . He then worked for another year with the Flyers before moving to Europe in the Swiss National League A for HC Ambrì-Piotta in the summer of 1990 .

A successful season in Switzerland followed, which attracted the interest of several NHL clubs. Bullard was the most successful scorer of his team with a total of 79 points in 41 NLA games ahead of the Swiss Peter Jaks . Finally, after the year at HC Ambrì-Piotta, he went back to North America to the Toronto Maple Leafs , but was unable to build on his previous performance there and returned to Switzerland for the 1992/93 season and signed a one-year contract with the then in of the National League B playing SC Rapperswil-Jona . There he was again the best striker of his team and in the summer of 1993 received lucrative offers from other, higher-class teams from Switzerland and other European countries. Bullard finally decided on the EV Landshut and switched to the top German division at the time, the Bundesliga .

The Canadian became the top scorer and top scorer in the Bundesliga in 1994. He was also named Player of the Year. Despite these personal successes, he was eliminated with the EV Landshut in the playoff quarter-finals against the Cologne EC . In a close series, the team lost with 3-4 defeats. In the following summer of 1994, the German Ice Hockey League was founded and Bullard moved into the final of the playoffs for the German championship with the EVL . As in the quarter-finals last year, this was lost to the Kölner Haie. After 1994, Bullard was the most successful main round goalscorer in the top German division for the second time in a row. In the playoffs he was even the top scorer with 27 points in 18 games. So he had a big part in making it into the playoff final.

In the 1995/96 season he reached the semi-finals of the playoffs with the Landshutern and was eliminated there against the Kölner Haie. The EVL failed in three years, three times in the playoffs against the Haien from Cologne. The Canadian was again one of the best scorers in the league and scored 69 points in 50 main round games. Another six goals and eleven assists in the playoffs followed. He stayed in Landshut until 1998 and then switched to the then highly indebted Eisbären Berlin . In 1997, while still wearing the EV Landshut jersey, he was the most successful template provider for the DEL main round and in 1998 he was nominated by fans and journalists for the first DEL All-Star Game in Frankfurt. There he was part of the DEL All-Star Team , but could not achieve a scorer point.

Bullard's performance at Eisbären Berlin stagnated for the first time in his career. Although he scored 50 scorer points in his first season in the polar bear jersey, these were reduced to 46 the following year. Nevertheless, together with his compatriot Marc Fortier, he was the most important foreign player on the team and achieved second place with the club in the IIHF Continental Cup in 1999 . After he helped the polar bears to stay in the league in the 1999/00 season , he signed a contract with former league rivals Schwenninger Wild Wings . The Schwenninger kept the attacker in their team for two years and had to let him move to the Heilbronn EC in the 2nd Bundesliga in 2002 .

There Bullard wanted to end his career after the end of the 2002/03 season. When the Schwenninger Wild Wings placed last in the table during the 2002/03 DEL season and relegation in the highest German league was in danger, he decided to strengthen his old club. So he went on the ice for the Wild Wings in the last ten main round games, as well as in the subsequent playdowns against the Frankfurt Lions . These could be defeated in a "best-of-seven" series with 4: 2 games and thus the ability to stay in the class was secured. The Schwenninger were relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga because the DEL license was withdrawn due to ongoing insolvency proceedings . Mike Bullard then ended his active ice hockey career at the age of 42.

In the DEL, he completed a total of 460 games, in which he scored 521 points (218 goals / 303 assists) and collected 602 penalty minutes. Before the start of the 2009/10 season, he was in second place in the all-time scorer ranking and in first place on the scorer list. He is also the eighth best template provider in DEL history to date. Mike Bullard was thus one of the most influential and successful players ever to play in the German Ice Hockey League, which was founded in 1994. He also played a total of 727 NHL games and achieved 674 points scorer (329 goals, 345 assists).

As a trainer

After the end of his playing career, he took over the position of coach for the 2003/04 season at Schwenninger ERC. With the SERC he reached the playoff quarterfinals twice. In November 2005 he was released from his duties as head coach and replaced by Marcel Breil . In the summer of 2006 he went to Austria and trained the Graz 99ers there . However, he was only active there for a few months and was released at the end of October 2006. This was followed by an engagement with ESV Kaufbeuren in the 2nd Bundesliga, which he took up on February 8, 2007. Bullard was signed as an interim coach for the rest of the 2006/07 season and should secure relegation with the ESV. This sporting goal could not be achieved and the ESV rose after four defeats in the playdowns against the ETC Crimmitschau in the league .

After a planned engagement with the Mosquitos Essen failed for financial reasons, he signed on May 15, 2008 for the 2008/09 season with his former club, the Landshut Cannibals, a contract as head coach. There he was given leave of absence after the 4-1 defeat by the Freiburg Wolves on February 14, 2009. He then returned to Canada, was the 2009/10 manager of the Brantford Eagles in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League and then coached the team for a year. In 2013 he joined the Caledonia Corvairs as coach in the same league.

Personal

In 2014, Bullard said he had a drinking problem during his playing career. In 1995 he stopped drinking.

Achievements and Awards

1994 Bundesliga top scorer 1994 Most successful goalscorer in the Bundesliga 1994 Ice Hockey Player of the Year 1995 DEL most successful goalscorer 1995 top scorer of the DEL playoffs

1997 Most successful submission provider of the DEL 1998 DEL All-Star Game 1999 DEL All-Star Game 2001 DEL All-Star Game 2002 DEL All-Star Game

International

• 1986 bronze medal at the world championship

Career statistics

				Regular season						Play-offs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM
1978-79	Brantford Alexander	OHL		66	43	56	99	66		-	-	-	-	-
1979-80	Brantford Alexander	OHL		66	66	84	150	86		-	-	-	-	-
1980-81	Brantford Alexander	OHL		42	47	60	107	55		-	-	-	-	-
1980-81	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		15th	1	2	3	19th		4th	3	3	6th	0
1981-82	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		75	36	27	63	91		5	1	1	2	4th
1982-83	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		57	22nd	22nd	44	60		-	-	-	-	-
1983-84	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		76	51	41	92	57		-	-	-	-	-
1984-85	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		68	32	31	63	75		-	-	-	-	-
1985-86	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		77	41	42	83	69		-	-	-	-	-
1986-87	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		14th	2	10	12	17th		-	-	-	-	-
1986-87	Calgary Flames	NHL		57	28	26th	54	34		6th	4th	2	6th	2
1987-88	Calgary Flames	NHL		79	48	55	103	68		6th	0	2	2	6th
1988-89	St. Louis Blues	NHL		20th	4th	12	16	46		-	-	-	-	-
1988-89	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		54	23	26th	49	60		19th	3	9	12	32
1989-90	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		70	27	37	64	67		-	-	-	-	-
1990-91	HC Ambrì-Piotta	NLA		41	41	37	78	39		-	-	-	-	-
1991-92	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		65	14th	14th	28	42		-	-	-	-	-
1992-93	SC Rapperswil-Jona	NLB		36	51	32	83	39		7th	6th	7th	13	4th
1993-94	EV Landshut	BL		44	37	26th	63	45		7th	3	1	4th	10
1994-95	EV Landshut	DEL		38	22nd	43	65	83		18th	17th	10	27	28
1995-96	EV Landshut	DEL		50	29	41	70	56		11	6th	11	17th	20th
1996-97	EV Landshut	DEL		47	19th	51	70	69		7th	5	4th	9	-
1997-98	EV Landshut	DEL		45	12	24	36	63		-	-	-	-	-
1998-99	Polar bears Berlin	DEL		50	21st	30th	51	58		8th	1	4th	5	6th
1999-00	Polar bears Berlin	DEL		54	21st	25th	46	71		11	7th	6th	13	24
2000-01	Schwenninger Wild Wings	DEL		44	20th	20th	40	32		-	-	-	-	-
2001-02	Schwenninger Wild Wings	DEL		48	19th	14th	33	32		7th	3	3	6th	8th
2002-03	Schwenninger Wild Wings	DEL		10	5	5	10	6th		6th	4th	7th	11	2
2002-03	Heilbronn EC	2nd BL		28	7th	13	20th	39		-	-	-	-	-
OHL total				194	156	200	356	207		-	-	-	-	-
2nd BL total				28	7th	13	20th	39		-	-	-	-	-
BL total				44	37	26th	63	45		7th	3	1	4th	10
DEL total				386	168	253	421	470		68	43	45	88	88
NLA total				41	41	37	78	39		-	-	-	-	-
NHL overall				727	329	345	674	705		40	11	17th	28	44

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; ¹  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

• Mike Bullard at hockeydb.com (English)
• Mike Bullard at eurohockey.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DEL record book. Numbers, data and facts from twelve years of DEL , in: DEL. The 1st Bundesliga. Special issue season 06/07, ice hockey news episode 01/06, pp. 155–178 (deadline August 10, 2006)
2. ↑ hockeyweb.de, Mike Bullard becomes trainer at ESV Kaufbeuren (February 8, 2007)
3. ↑ la-cannibals.com, Landshut Cannibals on leave after 1: 4 against Freiburg coach Mike Bullard  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ^ Elite Prospects - Mike Bullard Team Staff Profile. Retrieved April 27, 2019 . 
5. ↑ German ice hockey champion 1980: DEL 13-14 20 years DEL - 20 out of 20 - Mike Bullard. December 20, 2015, accessed April 27, 2019 .