89 Champs: Where Are They Now: Joe Mullen

Joe Mullen spent 17 years in the NHL, 5 of them with the Calgary Flames. Mullen’s 1988-89 season was the best of his career. His regular season point total of 110 was a career best and he had 24 points during the 88-89 playoffs.

Mullen’s run with the Flames was short lived as he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins on the day of the 1990 NHL Draft and won 2 Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh. Mullen had 3 70+ point seasons with the Penguins before finishing out his NHL career with the Boston Bruins and one more round with Pittsburgh. Mullen retired from the NHL in 1997 finishing with 502 goals and 561 assists. Mullen was the first American born NHL player to record 500 goals and 1,000 points.

Since retiring Mullen has, like many players, gotten into coaching. In 2000 he became an assistant with the Pittsburgh Penguins and remained on staff at the NHL level until 2006 when the entire Penguins staff was fired. He was named the interim coach of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL for the remainder of the 2006 season. He was let go at the end of the year and signed on with the Philadelphia Flyers as an assistant coach and remains on staff to this day.

Mullen was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1998 and to the Hockey Hall Of Fame in 2000. His son Patrick currently plays for Dinamo Riga of the KHL.

by Mark Parkinson