In the 102-year history of the National Hockey League, 348 individuals have played 1,000 or more regular season games. 44 of them, or 12.6%, have played some part of their career with the Atlanta or Calgary Flames. We call these players Long-Timers.
Let’s take a look at Jay Bouwmeester.
A product of Edmonton, Bouwmeester grew up lanky and came up through the Western Hockey League with the Medicine Hat Tigers. He was selected third overall by the Florida Panthers in the 2002 NHL Draft.
Bouwmeester leapt straight into the NHL as a fresh-faced 19-year-old with Florida.