Cam Neely

Cam Neely
Hockey Hall of Fame, 2005
Neely in 2013
Born	(1965-06-06) June 6, 1965 (age 60) Comox, British Columbia, Canada
Height	6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Weight	218 lb (99 kg; 15 st 8 lb)
Position	Right wing
Shot	Right
Played for	Vancouver Canucks Boston Bruins
NHL draft	9th overall, 1983 Vancouver Canucks
Playing career	1983–1996

Cameron Michael Neely (born June 6, 1965) is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. He played right wing for the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1983 to 1996. Neely was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2005. He has been the president of the Bruins since 2010, and won the Stanley Cup in 2011.

Cameron Michael Neely was born on June 6, 1965, in Comox, British Columbia, Canada to his parents Michael and Marlene Neely . His father, served in the Royal Canadian Air Force, which led to family relocations during his early years, including a period living in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. His family eventually settled in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, where Neely spent most of his childhood and started to get involved in hockey along with avidly watching the Toronto Maple Leafs with his father.^[1][2]

Neely began playing for the Ridge Meadows Minor Hockey program from 1976 to 1981. Along with hockey Neely also played for Ridge Meadows baseball team alongside Larry Walker, from ages 11 to 16.^[3]

Neely played hockey with the Ridge Meadows Hockey Association for the majority of his minor career and has been named to the Maple Ridge honourable people list scoring 141 points in 64 games in 1981-82.^{[citation needed]} He then joined the Portland Winter Hawks of the Western Hockey League he led the team to the Memorial Cup Championship, becoming the first US-based team to claim the Cup. Neely quickly emerged as a top prospect for the upcoming 1983 NHL Entry Draft, as he scored 56 goals and 120 points in 72 games. He was then drafted by the Vancouver Canucks ninth overall in the 1983 entry draft. Neely debuted with the Canucks during the 1983-84 season, he scored his first goal in his third game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 9, 1983.^[4] He finished his rookie season with in 56 appearances, recording 16 goals and 15 assists for 31 points. In his second season, he has his first 20 goal season scoring 39 total points.^[4] He then played his final season for Vancouver in 1985-86 which saw a slight dip in scoring with 14 goals and 20 assists in 73 games.

On his 21st birthday in June 1986,^[5] Neely was traded along with Vancouver's first pick, third overall in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft (used to take Glen Wesley) to the Boston Bruins for Barry Pederson. Canucks head coach Tom Watt was not impressed with Neely's defence, and that was what made him tradeable. Neely said "I was playing behind Stan Smyl and Tony Tanti, so I didn't see a lot of ice time, and, certainly not on the power plays."^[6]

Almost immediately, it became apparent that the Bruins had received the better of the deal. Neely stated that "I was surprised at the trade. I really didn't know what to expect once I got to Boston and had no idea that my career would turn out the way it did for those ten years. From Day One in training camp, I just wanted to get the opportunity to play. The coaches said, 'Let's see what he can do.' As time went by, I got more and more confidence. I never really thought I'd be a 50-goal scorer, but I was given a chance to contribute offensively, not just physically."^[6]

In his first full season following the trade, Neely's 36 goals led the club, and his 72 points more than doubled his previous year's performance. In the same season, he also spent 143 minutes in the penalty box

Mike Milbury said, 'I want you to think about what you're doing by putting yourself into the penalty box. If you're going to fight, make sure it's on your terms and not just because someone is challenging you.' He was trying to make me understand who I was going in the box with. He'd say, 'I don't want to take away from you dropping your gloves, but, I don't want you to think about not doing it. I just want you to think about how your reaction affects both their team and our team.' So it got me to thinking a little more about my role. Then, I began going with my instincts more and what felt right at that moment.^[6]

Neely's success stemmed largely from his hard, accurate shot, quick release, and his willingness to engage in the more physical aspects of the game. At 6 ft 1 in and 215 lb, Neely was as devastating with his body checks and fists as he was with his goal scoring exploits. He became the archetype of the power forward and earned the nickname "Bam-Bam Cam".^[7]

During the 1987-88 season Neely further showcased his scoring ability when he scored 40+ goals for the first time as he helped the Bruins make it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals where they lost to the Edmonton Oilers.^[8] At the end of the season he was named to the Second NHL All-Star team for the first time. Neely then followed this with a 75 point season in 74 games during the 1988-89 season. In 1989-90 Neely had his best statistical season when he scored 55 goals and 37 assists for 92 points in 76 games. As he once again helped lead the Bruins back to the Stanley Cup finals where they were once again defeated by Edmonton. Neely was then named to the Second NHL All-Star team for a second time.^[8]

The following year during the 1990-91 season Neely had both his second straight 90+ plus and once again scored 50+ plus goals. On May 5, 1991, during game 3 of the 1991 Prince of Wales Conference Finals, Neely was checked by Ulf Samuelsson, and injured on the play, and was hit again to the knee in game 6. Compounding the situation was that Neely developed myositis ossificans in the injured area. The injury kept him out of all but 22 games of the next two seasons, and he would only play a total of 162 NHL games for the remainder of his career after the hit because of knee trouble.^[9] Neely would end up getting revenge on Samuelsson during a game on March 27, 1993 where Neely started “manhandling” Samuelsson and ended up throwing him around like a rag doll.^[10]

After only playing a handful of games the previous two seasons Neely made a comeback during the 1993–94 season, where he scored his 50th goal in his 44th game; only Wayne Gretzky has scored 50 goals in fewer games. This milestone is unofficial as the 50 goals must be scored in the first 50 games the team plays, counting from the start of the season. Other players have also "unofficially" reached this milestone, such as Alexander Mogilny, Jari Kurri, and Bobby Hull. At the end of the year for his intense efforts to come back time and again from his devastating injuries were recognized with his winning of the Masterton Trophy after the 1993–94 season. He was also named to the Second NHL All-Star Team for a fourth and final time. For the rest of his career he was regularly listed as a healthy scratch in alternate games in order to rest his ailing knee, but it would be a degenerative hip condition that forced Neely to retire after the 1995–96 season at the age of 31.

In one memorable incident in 1994, the tip of Neely's right pinky finger was cut off through his glove, requiring 10–15 stitches to repair. After sustaining the injury early in the second period, Neely received the stitches, and returned to the game later that period. Neely scored an assist, but the Bruins ultimately lost the game against the Devils 2–1.^[11]

On January 12, 2004 The Bruins held Cam Neely night and retired his #8 in his honor,^[12] making him the tenth player to have a number retired by the team. Despite his shortened career, he recorded some remarkable scoring feats. Only Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Brett Hull scored a better goals per game average over the course of an NHL season than Neely did with his 50-goals-in-49-games in the 1993–94 season (despite missing 35 games that season). Also, only ten players in NHL history scored a better goals per game average over their career than Neely. He reached the fifty goal mark three times, played in five All-Star games, and was named the league's Second Team All-Star at right wing in 1988, 1990, 1991, and 1994. ^{[citation needed]}

As of April 27, 2024, Neely is second on the Boston Bruins' all-time playoff goal scoring list with 55. He ranks tenth in playoff points for Boston with 87.

In November 1998, Neely attempted a comeback after being out of hockey for two years. Neely said this in a 2008 interview about it:

I wish that my lungs felt as good as my hip. If I last four days (of practice) in a row and my hip's barking at me, then that's all she wrote. I know how I felt when I had to retire and I know how I'm feeling now. It's not really how I want to feel. It was fun while I was out there but each day I skated, the pain just kind of lingered a lot longer than I would have liked. I was feeling really good and had started getting some different treatment. I practiced a few times with the Bruins but after some really hard practices, realized there was just no way I could continue.^[6]

Neely was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2005. He said "To be honest, I never concerned myself too much with the Hall of Fame, just like I never concerned myself with numbers when I played," he said. "I just tried to do my best and work hard. Whether I played well or not was another story."^[6]

On September 25, 2007, Neely was appointed vice president of the Boston Bruins,^[13] and was named president of the team on June 16, 2010 a position he still holds.^[14] Also in 2010 Neely was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for his contributions to hockey in the United States.^[15] On Wednesday, June 15, 2011, Neely returned to British Columbia as the Bruins faced the Canucks in the first Stanley Cup Finals Game 7 in Bruins history and watched the Bruins win 4–0 to win their first Stanley Cup since 1972, allowing Neely to lift the Cup after it had eluded him as a player.

He sat on the board of directors of Whistler Blackcomb Holdings Inc., which was created by an IPO by Intrawest Corp. on November 1, 2010. Within that board, he was a member of the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee.^[16] In 2024 Neely was appointed to the advisory board of Frequency Exchange, a company focused on financial technology innovations.^[17]

Neely also played in the Alumni Game of the 2016 Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium against the Montreal Canadiens Alumni on a Bruins Alumni team including Bourque, Mark Recchi and Terry O'Reilly and coached by, among others, Mike Milbury, Lyndon Byers and Don "Grapes" Cherry.

Neely was born in Comox, British Columbia and grew up in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. Both of his parents died of cancer. Neely remains active in the Cam Neely Foundation which is run in conjunction with Tufts Medical Center, where patients and their families avail themselves of accommodation at the "Neely House" while undergoing cancer treatments.^[18] Since it inception Neely House has provided 36,000 nights of lodging.^[19] After his mother died of cancer in 1987 and his father in 1993, he founded the charity in 1995 and that same year asked Denis Leary if he was interested in orchestrating a Boston-based comedy benefit show, which has become the annual Comics Come Home event.^[20] All proceeds directly fund the foundation's programs, The event has since raised $17 million.^[21] Neely who is a golfer also hosts his own charity golf tournament which has been running since 1995.^[22][23] As of 2025, his foundation has raised over $34 million in donations, directing these funds to sustain operations and expand services that have benefited thousands of families.^[19]

Neely has been married to his wife Paulina Neely since 1996 and has two children, a son Jack who was born in 1998, and a daughter Ava who was born in 2000 they reside in Massachusetts.^[14][24][25] Ons of Neely's childhood friends is former Major League Baseball (MLB) Hall of Fame right fielder Larry Walker, who himself dreamed of an NHL career as a goaltender. Neely and Walker constantly played against one another to sharpen their skills.^[26]

Neely is close friends with actor and activist Michael J. Fox, dating back to the time when Neely was playing for the Canucks.^[27] Fox spoke at Neely's number retirement ceremony and was a guest at Neely's Hockey Hall of Fame induction.^[28] In June 2025, Fox and Neely collaborated in a video parodying Back to the Future to promote new uniforms for the Bruins.^[29]

Neely has appeared on Denis Leary's series Rescue Me, playing a hockey-playing firefighter who wreaks havoc during an NYPD vs. FDNY game. He made a cameo in the eighth-season opening episode of Cheers, titled "The Improbable Dream", as a bar patron.^[30]

Neely and Lyndon Byers had a cameo for Boston-based band Extreme in their video for the song "Hole Hearted" where they are seen playing a guitar alongside the band. Most famously, Neely portrayed the character of Sea Bass in the Farrelly brothers films Dumb and Dumber, Me, Myself & Irene, and Dumb and Dumber To. He had a small role as himself in the second film of the Mighty Ducks trilogy, D2: The Mighty Ducks.^[30] He had a small role as SOC #2 in the 1983 film The Outsiders.

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1981–82	Ridge Meadows Lightning	Midget		64	73	68	141	134		—	—	—	—	—
1982–83	Portland Winter Hawks	WHL		72	56	64	120	130		14	9	11	20	17
1983–84	Portland Winter Hawks	WHL		19	8	18	26	29		—	—	—	—	—
1983–84	Vancouver Canucks	NHL		56	16	15	31	57		4	2	0	2	2
1984–85	Vancouver Canucks	NHL		72	21	18	39	137		—	—	—	—	—
1985–86	Vancouver Canucks	NHL		73	14	20	34	126		3	0	0	0	6
1986–87	Boston Bruins	NHL		75	36	36	72	143		4	5	1	6	8
1987–88	Boston Bruins	NHL		69	42	27	69	175		23	9	8	17	51
1988–89	Boston Bruins	NHL		74	37	38	75	190		10	7	2	9	8
1989–90	Boston Bruins	NHL		76	55	37	92	117		21	12	16	28	51
1990–91	Boston Bruins	NHL		69	51	40	91	98		19	16	4	20	36
1991–92	Boston Bruins	NHL		9	9	3	12	16		—	—	—	—	—
1992–93	Boston Bruins	NHL		13	11	7	18	25		4	4	1	5	4
1993–94	Boston Bruins	NHL		49	50	24	74	54		—	—	—	—	—
1994–95	Boston Bruins	NHL		42	27	14	41	72		5	2	0	2	2
1995–96	Boston Bruins	NHL		49	26	20	46	31		—	—	—	—	—
NHL totals				726	395	299	694	1,241		93	57	32	89	168

• CHL Memorial Cup champion — 1983.
• Won the Seventh Player Award — 1987, 1994
• NHL All-Star Game — 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1996
• Bruins Three Stars Awards — 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1995
• Won the Elizabeth C. Dufresne Trophy — 1988, 1991, 1995
• Named to the NHL Second All-Star team — 1988, 1990, 1991, 1994
• Won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy — 1994
• Inducted into the British Columbia Hockey Hall of Fame — 1999^[31]
• Inducted into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame — 2000^[32]
• His #8 Jersey was retired by the Boston Bruins on January 12, 2004.
• Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2005.
• Won the Lester Patrick Trophy — 2010
• Stanley Cup champion — 2011 (As Boston Bruins President)
• Inducted into the Portland Winterhawks Hall of Fame (2023).^[33]
• His #21 Jersey was retired by the Portland Winterhawks on March 18, 2023.^[34]
• Named One of the Top 100 Best Bruins Players of all Time.^[35]
• Named to the Boston Bruins All-Centennial Team^[36]

• 50 goals in 50 games
• Hockey Hall of Fame
• Power forward (ice hockey)

• Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or Legends of Hockey, or The Internet Hockey Database
• Cam Neely at IMDb

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Michel Petit	Vancouver Canucks first round draft pick 1983	Succeeded by J. J. Daigneault
Preceded by Mario Lemieux	Bill Masterton Trophy winner 1994	Succeeded by Pat LaFontaine

Sporting positions
Preceded by Harry Sinden	President of the Boston Bruins 2006 – Present	Succeeded by Incumbent