Cam Neely was born on June 6, 1965, in Vancouver, B.C.. After scoring 56 goals and 120 points in 72 games with the Portland Winter Hawks in the Western Hockey League, his hometown Vancouver Canucks selected him with the ninth overall pick at the 1983 NHL Entry Draft.
Immediately following the draft, Neely debuted with the Canucks and scored his first goal in his third game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 9, 1983. In his second season, he tallied 20 goals for the first time, finishing the campaign with 21 lamplighters and a then-career-high of 39 points.
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By 20, Neely had already skated in 201 NHL games, collecting 51 goals and 104 points, but was a minus-54 with 320 penalty minutes. At this point, he had yet to record a hat trick, and in just seven playoff games, he had two goals. However, the fate of the Canucks and the Boston Bruins would forever change on June 6, 1986.
Neely Begins Journey to Hockey Hall of Fame in Boston
General Manager Harry Sinden orchestrated one of the most incredible deals in Bruins franchise history when he dealt away six-year veteran Barry Pederson for Neely and a first-round draft pick in 1987. During his first campaign in a Spoked B jersey, Neely erupted for 36 goals and 72 points, picking up his first career hat trick in February. He scored five goals in four playoff games against the Montreal Canadiens, including his postseason hat trick. At the time, no one could have expected that Neely would go on to become the Bruins’ all-time leading playoff scorer (55) and the skater with the third most career hat tricks for the Original Six franchise. That first season was only the beginning of something special.
Neely potted 42 goals for an encore in 1988, including four regular-season hat tricks while skating in his first NHL All-Star Game and Stanley Cup Final. After a “down” year in 1989, where the power forward only scored 37 goals, he set a career-high with 190 penalty minutes while scoring a league-leading 12 game-winning goals.
As the Bruins marched to their second Stanley Cup Final appearance in three seasons in 1990, Neely reached 50 goals for the first time, scoring an eventual career-high 55 goals in 76 games. Unfortunately, Boston would lose to the Edmonton Oilers for the second time, but that latest defeat didn’t slow Neely down, as he netted 51 goals in 69 games in 1991.
However, that was the last time he skated in over 50 games in a season. After a collision with Pittsburgh Penguins’ defenseman Ulf Samuelsson, Neely’s knees were never the same, and just like Bobby Orr 20 years before, a promising Bruins career was cut short due to injury.
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From 1991 to 1993, the President of the Bruins played only 22 games, scoring 20 goals and 30 points. After missing 142 games, Neely returned for one last hurrah in 1993-94, scoring 50 goals in just 44 games. He compiled 74 points in 49 games, leading the NHL with 13 game-winners and winning the Bill Masterton Trophy for his perseverance through his knee injuries.
Over the last two seasons of his playing career, Neely played 91 games, collecting another 53 goals and 87 points, skating in his final game on Feb. 21, 1996, against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. At his retirement, he was the Bruins’ fourth-highest goal scorer with 344 goals, only surpassed by Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Ray Bourque, and David Pastrnak in the past 28 years.
Canucks Give Away a Future Hall of Famer and Stanley Cup Winner
The Canucks gave up Neely and a first-round pick in exchange for Pederson, who was also a former first-round selection (18th overall) in the 1980 NHL Entry Draft. He debuted at 19, becoming a two-time 40-goal scorer by the end of his third season. Moreover, Pederson became an assist machine, recording 61 and 77 in consecutive seasons in 1983 and 1984. Additionally, he set career highs in points with 107 and 116.
However, an injury derailed his 1985 campaign, limiting him to 22 games, scoring 12 points. Upon his return, he bounced back with 29 goals and 76 points in 1986 before the deal to send him to Vancouver went through. At first, he continued to put up solid numbers with the Canucks, collecting 52 assists in each of his first two seasons with 76 and 71 points.
But 1988 was his last productive season in the NHL. In 62 games, he scored 41 points, and he had just nine the following season before a trade sent him to the Penguins. Pederson had just 36 points in 84 games with Pittsburgh but won the Stanley Cup as a member of the 1991 team before coming back to New England as a free agent by signing with the Hartford Whalers in the summer of 1991. In one of the rare trades between the two Northeast close rivals, Pederson finished his NHL career with the Bruins in 1992, skating in 32 games and adding nine points to his totals.
Even though the Canucks qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 1986, they had a 23-44-13 record and wound up with the third overall pick in the 1987 Entry Draft. Because of the Neely deal with the Bruins, Boston landed a top-three pick, where they selected Glen Wesley.
Wesley played 20 seasons in the NHL, scoring 128 goals and 409 points. He played in the 1988, 1990, 2002, and 2006 Stanley Cup Finals and won a championship in 2006. He skated with the Bruins from 1987 to 1994 before moving down I-95 to join the Whalers. When the franchise relocated to Raleigh, N.C., in 1997, he stayed with the organization, now the Carolina Hurricanes. Although he had a brief seven-game stint with the Maple Leafs in 2003, he returned to Carolina to skate in his final four seasons. After 13 seasons patrolling the blueline for the Whalers/Hurricanes, they honored his contributions by retiring his number in 2009, five seasons after the Bruins bestowed the honor upon Neely.
Historical Perspective
In 2024, Neely serves as President of the Bruins, a role he’s had since 2010, getting his name engraved on the Stanley Cup in 2011 when Boston defeated his hometown Canucks in Game 7 at Rogers Arena. Meanwhile, Pederson returned to New England in retirement, joining NESN, where he serves as a studio analyst for Bruins games. Wesley joined the Hurricanes front office as Director of Player Development. He was in the position for a decade, from 2008 to 2018, before joining the St. Louis Blues as a development coach, winning another Stanley Cup with the organization in 2019 against the Bruins.
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There is no denying that Boston’s acquiring Neely in 1986 changed the franchise’s direction. He would become one of the most beloved skaters in franchise history. As the ultimate power forward in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there’s no telling how much more success he could have had if his knees didn’t give out like Orr a generation before. In 2006, he entered the Hockey Hall of Fame, solidifying his place among the immortals, meaning the Bruins landed a one-of-a-kind player in this 1986 blockbuster.
