Brian Patrick Mullen (born March 16, 1962) is an American former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player who spent eleven seasons in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) playing for the

Winnipeg Jets The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The Jets compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The te ...

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York City. The Rangers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team plays ...

San Jose Sharks The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California. The Sharks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Con ...

, and

New York Islanders The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (N ...

. Mullen appeared in 832 career NHL games, recording 260 goals and 622 points, along with 30 playoff points in 62 postseason games.

Amateur career

Mullen grew up in an

Irish-American Irish Americans () are Irish ethnics who live within in the United States, whether immigrants from Ireland or Americans with full or partial Irish ancestry. Irish immigration to the United States From the 17th century to the mid-19th c ...

family in the

Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, or Midtown West on real estate listings, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, ...

neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. He and older brother

Joe Mullen Joseph Patrick Mullen (born February 26, 1957) is an American former professional ice hockey player. He played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the St. Louis Blues, Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins betwe ...

played

roller hockey Roller hockey is a form of hockey played on a dry surface using wheeled skates. It can be played with traditional roller skates (quad skates) or with inline skates and use either a ball or puck. Combined, roller hockey is played in nearly 60 cou ...

in the streets of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

as children. After landing a job as a stick boy for the

, he and Joe were offered a spot on a junior league team coached by Ranger head coach

Emile Francis Emile Percival Francis (September 13, 1926 – February 19, 2022), nicknamed "The Cat", was a Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and general manager in the National Hockey League (NHL). He played for the Chicago Black Hawks and New York Rangers f ...

. Mullen won an athletic scholarship to the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

where he played under legendary college hockey coach "Badger" Bob Johnson.

Professional career

Mullen was selected in the seventh round of the 1980 NHL Entry Draft by the Winnipeg Jets. Two years later, he signed with the Jets and scored an impressive 24 goals and recorded 50 points during his rookie season. He spent five seasons with Winnipeg before joining his hometown New York Rangers where he spent four seasons. Mullen also represented the United States in the 1989 and 1991

Ice Hockey World Championship The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), first officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the E ...

tournaments after the Rangers were knocked out in the first round of the

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...

playoffs (he was also a member of the

1984 Canada Cup The 1984 Labatt Canada Cup was a professional international ice hockey tournament played during the first three weeks of September 1984. The best-of-three final took place between Canada and Sweden, with Canada winning a two game sweep. Canadia ...

team). Mullen spent the 1991–1992 season with the Sharks and the following season with the Islanders. On August 9, 1993, Mullen suffered a small

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

caused by a

blood clot A thrombus ( thrombi) is a solid or semisolid aggregate from constituents of the blood (platelets, fibrin, red blood cells, white blood cells) within the circulatory system during life. A blood clot is the final product of the blood coagulatio ...

in his brain. The stroke severely impacted his motor skills and he required open heart surgery. Mullen was recovering well and his reflexes largely returned to normal. He hoped to one day return to action in the NHL but a subsequent

seizure A seizure is a sudden, brief disruption of brain activity caused by abnormal, excessive, or synchronous neuronal firing. Depending on the regions of the brain involved, seizures can lead to changes in movement, sensation, behavior, awareness, o ...

in 1994 ended his dreams of a comeback and he was forced to retire from hockey.

Post career

Brian Mullen 2019 Junior Rangers Hockey Program 2

After his retirement, he worked for the NHL front office for eight years. He also worked as a radio color analyst for the

alongside play-by-play announcer

Kenny Albert Kenneth Gary Albert (born February 2, 1968) is an American sportscaster, the son of NBA sportscaster Marv Albert and nephew of sportscasters Al Albert and Steve Albert. He is the only sportscaster who currently does play-by-play for all four ...

for the 2002-2003 and 2003–2004 seasons. He is currently a youth hockey coach with the Protec Ducks of the New Jersey Youth Hockey League (NJYHL) who skate out of Protec Hockey Ponds in

Somerset, New Jersey Somerset is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Franklin Township, in Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.

Awards and accomplishments

*Played in

NHL All-Star Game The National Hockey League All-Star Game () is an exhibition ice hockey tournament that is traditionally held during the regular season of the National Hockey League (NHL), with many of the League's star players playing against each other. The ga ...

(

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

) *

Lester Patrick Trophy The Lester Patrick Trophy has been presented by the National Hockey League and USA Hockey since 1966 to honor a recipient's contribution to ice hockey in the United States. It is considered a non-NHL trophy because it may be awarded to players, ...

(

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

) * In the 2009 book ''100 Ranger Greats'', was ranked No. 89 all-time of the 901 New York Rangers who had played during the team's first 82 seasons

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

*
Brian Mullen @ hockeydraftcentral.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mullen, Brian 1962 births Living people American men's ice hockey left wingers Ice hockey players from New York (state) Lester Patrick Trophy recipients National Hockey League All-Stars New York Islanders players New York Rangers players People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan San Jose Sharks players Sportspeople from Manhattan Ice hockey people from New York City Winnipeg Jets (1979–1996) draft picks Winnipeg Jets (1979–1996) players Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey players American people of Irish descent NCAA men's ice hockey national champions 20th-century American sportsmen