Robert Bortuzzo

Robert Bortuzzo
Date of birth	March 18, 1989
place of birth	Thunder Bay , Ontario , Canada
size	193 cm
Weight	98 kg
position	defender
number	# 41
Shot hand	Right
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	2007 , 3rd round, 78th position Pittsburgh Penguins
Career stations
2006-2009	Kitchener Rangers
2009-2013	Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins
2011-2015	Pittsburgh Penguins
since 2015	St. Louis Blues

Robert Bortuzzo (* 18th March 1989 in Thunder Bay , Ontario ) is a Canadian ice hockey player , who in since March 2015 St. Louis Blues in the National Hockey League on the position of the defense plays. With the team he won the Stanley Cup in the 2019 playoffs .

Career

Bortuzzo in the Pittsburgh Penguins jersey (2013)

youth

Robert Bortuzzo was born in Thunder Bay and played there in the junior division with the Thunder Bay Kings . In 2005 he moved to the Fort William North Stars , which are also based in Thunder Bay. After a year he made the leap into the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), one of the three most important junior leagues in Canada, where he was henceforth used for the Kitchener Rangers . Following the 2006/07 season, Bortuzzo was old enough for the NHL Entry Draft , in which he was selected in the summer of 2007 in 78th position by the Pittsburgh Penguins . As usual, however, he initially stayed with the Kitchener Rangers under contract to continue to collect game practice. The Canadian managed to win the Hamilton Spectator Trophy with the team in the following season for the most points in the regular season. In the subsequent play-offs for the Memorial Cup , the Rangers only failed in the final against the Spokane Chiefs . Most of the subsequent 2008/09 season missed Bortuzzo due to a rotator cuff injury including surgery.

Pittsburgh Penguins

At the beginning of the 2009/10 season, Bortuzzo moved from the OHL to the American Hockey League (AHL) to the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins and thus to the farm team of the Pittsburgh Penguins . In his first AHL season, the 1.93 m tall defender had 12 points scorer in 75 games. These statistics should increase significantly in the next year, where he scored four goals and 22 assists in 79 games. Due to his performance, he was also allowed to take part in the AHL All-Star Game in January 2011 and scored two goals there. At the beginning of the 2011/12 season, Bortuzzo replaced the injured Ben Lovejoy and came on November 5, 2011 to his NHL debut in a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings . At the end of November he was reassigned to the NHL squad and played five games, but then returned to the AHL by the end of the season. He stayed there until late in the following season 2012/13, so that he was only called back to the NHL squad in January 2013.

This time he won a more solid place there and completed 15 games by the end of the regular season; in the play-offs, however, he was not used. In the summer of the same year, Bortuzzo's contract was extended by two years. Bortuzzo has been a permanent member of the Penguins' squad since the 2013/14 season and usually takes on the role of seventh defender, meaning he does not have a permanent partner or a permanent row. In his first regular season he came up with 10 assists in 54 games.

St. Louis Blues

In March 2015, the Penguins gave him, including a seven-round vote for the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, to the St. Louis Blues and received Ian Cole in return . With the team he won the Stanley Cup in the 2019 playoffs .

Achievements and Awards

• 2011 participation in the AHL All-Star Classic
• 2019 Stanley Cup win with the St. Louis Blues

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2018/19 season

				Regular season							Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2006/07	Kitchener Rangers	OHL		63	2	12	14th	+15	67		9	1	2	3	-1	8th
2007/08	Kitchener Rangers	OHL		52	3	15th	18th	+23	61		18th	0	8th	8th	+18	14th
2008/09	Kitchener Rangers	OHL		23	1	16	17th	–6	24		-	-	-	-	-	-
2009/10	Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins	AHL		75	2	10	12	+13	109		4th	0	0	0	-2	0
2010/11	Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins	AHL		79	4th	22nd	26th	+28	111		12	0	1	1	+1	6th
2011/12	Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins	AHL		51	3	9	12	+9	61		12	0	1	1	+1	13
2011/12	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		6th	0	0	0	+1	2		-	-	-	-	-	-
2012/13	Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins	AHL		31	1	3	4th	+4	34		-	-	-	-	-	-
2012/13	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		15th	2	2	4th	+4	27		-	-	-	-	-	-
2013/14	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		54	0	10	10	-3	74		8th	0	1	1	+1	4th
2014/15	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		38	2	4th	6th	–6	68		-	-	-	-	-	-
2014/15	St. Louis Blues	NHL		13	1	1	2	-3	25th		-	-	-	-	-	-
2015/16	St. Louis Blues	NHL		40	2	1	3	+2	52		5	0	1	1	+1	2
2016/17	St. Louis Blues	NHL		38	1	3	4th	+11	15th		10	0	0	0	-1	4th
2017/18	St. Louis Blues	NHL		72	4th	9	13	+11	41		-	-	-	-	-	-
2018/19	St. Louis Blues	NHL		59	2	8th	10	+9	47		17th	2	0	2	+3	30th
OHL total				138	6th	43	49	+32	152		27	1	10	11	+17	22nd
AHL total				236	10	44	54	+54	315		28	0	2	2	± 0	19th
NHL overall				335	14th	38	52	+25	351		40	2	2	4th	+4	40

( 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

Commons : Robert Bortuzzo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Player biography on the St. Louis Blues website
• Robert Bortuzzo at eliteprospects.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Robert Bortuzzo on hockeysfuture.com (accessed June 2, 2014)
2. ↑ sbnation.com: "2011 AHL All-Star Game: East Defeats West 11-8; Bobby Butler Wins MVP " (accessed June 2, 2014)
3. ↑ penguins.nhl.com: Match report Penguins – Kings (English, November 6, 2011, accessed June 2, 2014)
4. ↑ penguins.nhl.com: "Penguins Agree to Terms with Defenseman Robert Bortuzzo" (English, July 24, 2013, accessed June 2, 2014)
5. ↑ pensburgh.com: "2013-14 Season in Review: Robert Bortuzzo" (English, May 30, 2014, accessed June 2, 2014)