Joe Mullen

The Mullen family lived less than a block from the old site of the third Madison Square Garden on Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets.

Joe's father Tom was a longtime employee on the ice and maintenance staffs at the current Garden.

Joe and his brothers often hung around the arena with their father, taking old sticks to play with.

He began playing roller hockey at the age of five, playing in a concrete schoolyard and using a sanded down roll of electrical tape as a puck.

Joseph Patrick Mullen (born February 26, 1957) is an American former professional ice hockey player.

Born February 26, 1957, in New York City, Mullen grew up in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan when it was controlled by the Gambino crime family.

It was a rough neighborhood; Mullen later said that many of the people he grew up with fell into gangs and drug use, and several died before turning 21.

He has three brothers, Ken, Tom Jr. and Brian, and a sister, Debbie.

The boys' schoolyard games served as a partial inspiration for New York Rangers' general manager, Emile Francis, to create the Metropolitan Junior Hockey Association in 1966.

Mullen did not learn to ice skate until he was ten years old, but at the age of 14 joined the Metropolitan association as one of the league's youngest players.

Mullen played four seasons in the league between 1971 and 1975.

He scored 71 goals in 1973–74, then 182 points in 40 games the following season.

Mullen's 110 goals in 1974–75 was 52 more than his nearest competitor.

Boston College offered Mullen a partial scholarship for the 1975–76 season to attend and play for the Eagles hockey program.

He paid $700 out of his own pocket in the first year, but after scoring 34 points in 24 games as a freshman, the school gave him a full scholarship.

Including tournament games, he led the Eagles in goals the following three seasons with 39, 38 and 30 respectively, and points in 1977–78 with 68 and in 1978–79 with 56.

Mullen led the Eagles to the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) championship in 1977–78, and was named an all-star of the 1978 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament.

He scored a goal in the championship game, but the Eagles lost to cross-town rival Boston University, 5–3.

In four seasons with Boston College, Mullen set school records of 110 goals and 212 points (both subsequently broken).

He was named to the All-ECAC, All-New England and NCAA All-American teams in 1978 and 1979.

He won the Walter Brown Award in 1978 as the top American-born player in New England, and was the team captain in 1978–79.

He passed up the opportunity to play in the 1980 Winter Olympics and signed with the St. Louis Blues on August 16, 1979.

The Blues assigned Mullen to their Central Hockey League (CHL) affiliate, the Salt Lake Golden Eagles for the 1979–80 season.

In 75 games with the Golden Eagles, Mullen scored 40 goals and 72 points.

He played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the St. Louis Blues, Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins between 1980 and 1997.

He was named the Central Hockey League (CHL) rookie of the year in 1980 and most valuable player in 1981 as a member of the Salt Lake Golden Eagles.

He won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy as the NHL's most gentlemanly player on two occasions as a member of the Flames, as well as the NHL Plus-Minus Award.

Mullen was named to the first All-Star team in 1988–89 and played in three NHL All-Star Games.

Mullen played with the United States National Team on several occasions, including three Canada Cup tournaments.

He was the first American player to score 500 goals and to reach 1,000 points in his career.

He was a member of three Stanley Cup championship teams, winning with the Flames in 1989 and the Penguins in 1991 and 1992.

Mullen received the Lester Patrick Trophy in 1995 in recognition of his contributions to the sport in the United States.

He was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2000.

Boston College has twice honored Mullen; He was inducted into the school's Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1998, while the hockey program retired his jersey number 21 the following year.

While Mullen had a successful college career, he went undrafted by any National Hockey League (NHL) team.

His small stature, coupled with a general bias against American players at the time, especially from non-traditional development areas, contributed to his failure to be selected.

However, he received interest as a free agent from several teams following graduation as well as the United States Olympic Team.

Mullen turned to coaching in 2000, serving as an assistant in Pittsburgh and briefly as head coach of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

He was an assistant with the Philadelphia Flyers from 2007 to 2017.

An undrafted player, Mullen was an all-star for the Boston College Eagles before turning professional in the Blues' organization.