3ITB’s Top 33 Wild Players of All Time – #6

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6. Pierre-Marc Bouchard – LW/C

10 Seasons,  565 Games,  106 Goals,  241 Assists,  347 Points

It’s easy to marginalize Pierre-Marc Bouchard’s career with the Wild, as it petered out after a series of debilitating concussions, but there’s no doubt on the impact he had on the Wild teams of the 2000’s.

Drafted by the Wild with the 8th overall pick in the 2002 draft, PMB took the fast track to the NHL, getting to play as an 18 year-old right out of the draft. Primarily a playmaker, he had middling success in his first two pro seasons, but after the lost season (Thanks Bettman) in which PMB spent with the Wild’s AHL affiliate in Houston, he seemed to have caught up to the NHL speed. Pierre-Marc averaged 60 points over the next two seasons, racking up 50 and 30 assists respectively. His skill was blossoming and he became a mainstay in the Wild lineup, even providing a beautiful scoring touch, dazzling fans with the now-banned spin-o-rama during shootouts (and even in regular play).

Unfortunately near the end of the 2008-2009 season, PMB suffered a concussion that would knock him out for the rest of that season, all but one game of the next, and 22 of the 2010-2011 season. Over the next two seasons he suffered ongoing effects of post-concussion syndrome, and despite still being relatively effective, he only played 139 games during the last three seasons of his Wild career.

In 2013 he moved on from the Wild, playing one season with the NY Islanders and it’s AHL affiliate, before moving to Europe to play in the Swiss league before finally retiring at the age of 31.

He is in rare air with the Wild, being #2 all-time in assists, #4 all-time in goals, #3 in points and #3 in games.

Previously on our list:

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