Man of the Day 8/20: Teddy Purcell

Edward Purcell

Born September 8, 1985 (age 25) in St, John, Newfoundland, Canada

Right winger for the Tampa Bay Lightning

Time to head to sunny Florida, home of the Bolts, for today’s MotD! Teddy got his start in the USHL playing for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, where he was a high scorer in his two seasons there. Unfortunately, he wasn’t drafted, so he went on to the University of Maine and played there for a year. After his year in Maine, he was signed by the Los Angeles Kings for the 2007-08 season and went to the Manchester Monarchs. He did play a few games with the Kings that season, scoring his first NHL goal on February 15, 2008 against Calgary’s Miika Kiprusoff. With the Monarchs, he was named to their All-Star Game and scored a hat trick! He was also named rookie of the year and was awarded the Dudley “Red” Garrett Memorial Award. The next year, he played 40 games with the Kings and earned 16 points (4 goals, 12 assists).

Gettin' some love from the bench.

In 2010, Teddy and a 3rd round draft pick were traded to the Bolts in exchange for Jeff Halpern, and he earned 15 points and 10 penalty minutes in his first season with Tampa Bay. He did much better after the arrival of new coach Guy Boucher, scoring his first NHL hat trick against Phoenix and finishing the regular season with 51 points. He helped get the Bolts to the Eastern Conference finals, and by the time their Cup run was done, he’d earned 17 points and only 2 minutes in the sin bin. We’ll see if he can carry that over to the next season.

We only make passes at boys who wear glasses.

- Krista