Jay Bouwmeester enters Triple Gold Club with Blues' Stanley Cup win
A career once deprived of certain success has since earned itself some permanent, and rare, shine.
With the St. Louis Blues’ Stanley Cup triumph in Boston on Wednesday night, defenseman Jay Bouwmeester became the 29th player to enter hockey’s Triple Gold Club, which designates those who have won the NHL’s top prize in addition to an Olympic gold medal and World Championship.
Bouwmeester is the 11th Canadian in history to secure all three major titles and just the fourth defenseman, joining Hall of Famers Rob Blake, Scott Neidermayer and Chris Pronger.
Eric Staal, Jonathan Toews, Patrice Bergeron, Sidney Crosby and Corey Perry have each secured the honour over the last decade, while Joe Sakic and Brendan Shanahan round out the list of Canadian Triple Gold Club members.
The company he now keeps is pretty remarkable, given that Bouwmeester didn’t make his postseason debut until more than a decade into his NHL career and was overlooked by two Olympic executive teams before being named to the roster in 2014.
Entrance to the exclusive club adds an interesting wrinkle when contemplating Bowmeester’s body of work. With all four non-active members of the club from Canada now residing in the Hall of Fame, is it possible that Bouwmeester has secured entry?
As rare as his accomplishment is, the answer remains: likely not.
Bouwmeester’s numbers would present the greatest hurdle, as his production falls well short of the Hall of Fame standard with just 87 goals and 415 points across almost 1,200 games.
Still, he’s one of nine players to build out an Ironman streak of over 700 games and has quietly assembled a reasonably decorated international career with two World Cup and three world junior medals to add to his World Championship and Olympic honour.
For a long time the knock on Bouwmeester’s career was the marked absence of success.
Now with a Stanley Cup, suddenly he has a career which only few can compare.
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