Will the Greece native retire now that the Bruins season is over?
By Mark Dunphy / Boston.com
Penny Gionta signed up her two sons for a learn-to-skate program in Rochester to keep them busy during the endless Western New York winters. Once they had skating down, they began playing hockey on the same team. In the last game of the season, Stephen Gionta burst down the ice on a two-on-one and slid the puck across to his older brother Brian. Brian buried the chance, as he would bury 123 chances at Boston College and 291 more in the NHL.
Both brothers played in the NHL. Stephen suited up for more than 250 games as a New Jersey Devil and New York Islander, while Brian moved through three clubs before finding his way back to Boston in February. Since signing a one-year, $700,000 deal with the Bruins at the trade deadline, the 39-year-old has two goals and five assists.
Gionta was in Bruce Cassidy’s lineup for Game 4 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Here’s what you need to know about the Bruins veteran right wing:
Gionta is back in Boston after 17 years.
On January 27, 2001, Gionta scored each of the first five times he shot the puck and finished the first period with five goals. Boston College went on to beat Maine that day 7-2, and Gionta went on to set the school record with 123 goals in his Eagles’ career. The mark still stands.
Gionta was a three-time finalist for the Hobey Baker Award during his time on Chestnut Hill. In addition to his scoring record, he also holds the school’s top spot for hat tricks (nine). He led the nation in scoring his senior year, tallying 33 goals for the national champions. Gionta wore the “C” for the Eagles in the Frozen Four, a role he would grow accustomed to at the professional level.
The 5-foot-7, 178-pound forward entered the league as a New Jersey Devil. The team chose him with the 82nd overall pick in the 1998 draft and he joined the squad in 2001 after his time at Boston College. He spent seven years in New Jersey, where he won a Stanley Cup in 2003. In 2009, he signed a five-year, $25 million deal with the Montreal Canadiens. His next transaction sent him to his hometown Buffalo Sabres in 2014 before the sport took him back to Boston earlier this year.
He’s a leader
Team USA head coach Tony Granato had a fairly simple decision to make when he sat down to select his captain for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. There was only one player on his roster that had years of experience leading two different NHL teams into battle.
“We have plenty of other players who are considered good leaders but [they are] not Brian Gionta,” Granato said at the time. “We’re lucky he’s American and we’re lucky he was willing to do this for us. You talk about character, you talk about what he’s done in the game, you talk about the personality … there couldn’t be a more perfect person for that job.”
Gionta stitched on the “C” after one year with the Canadiens. He was only the second American-born player to the honor in Montreal. When he joined Buffalo in 2014, he was immediately named captain of that team as well.
The Bruins knew what they were getting when they signed Gionta in February. And he knew what he was signing up for, after waiting to see which team would give him the best chance at a deep playoff run.
“Depth and veteran leadership and a player that’s highly motivated,” said Bruins general manager Don Sweeney when Gionta was introduced. “He waited to see what clubs might have been in a position to be in the playoff race and we hope we can continue to be one those clubs and he’s going to add to that.”
He turned down NHL offers to play for Team USA.
After getting a taste of the Olympic experience in Turin in 2006, where Gionta scored four goals for the United States, he wanted another opportunity to wear the American colors. To do so, he had to turn down offers from NHL teams interested in his services.
“Five, six teams had interest and wanted to sign me, but when I sat down and analysed things, it didn’t work with where I wanted to be with my family, so I made that tough decision,” Gionta said. “It was just a family decision. By no means was it easy. I made it with the right intentions. The biggest appeal is the honor of representing your country on the biggest stage. Any time you get that chance, it’s special.”
Gionta was released by the Sabres in 2017. Instead of uprooting his wife, Harvest, and their three children for a move to another NHL city, he trained with the Sabres’ minor league affiliate, the Rochester Americans. His unemployment kept him eligible for a Winter Olympics in which NHL players did not compete.
One of his teammates on Team USA reunited with him in Boston after they returned from PyeongChang. While they were still overseas, Ryan Donato said his grizzled captain “looks pretty young.”
“He’s one of those guys that although he may have a lot of NHL experience and played in the league for a long time and played with my dad even, he’s one of those guys that always keeps the energy up and is flying around during practice and probably is one of the guys that’s still in the best shape out of all of us, too,” Donato said.
The Americans finished in seventh place in South Korea, but the final result surely didn’t matter too much to the person who first sent Gionta out on skates.
“I’ll probably cry all the way through it,’’ said Penny of the Olympics. “We never expected this late in his career he’d be doing this again and he’s so honored to wear that jersey. Of all the jerseys he’s worn, it still tops them all.”
*EDITOR’S NOTE — Brian Gionta said that he was semi-retired when he was practicing with the Rochester Americans, and played a game for the Amerks, while preparing for the Olympics. Time will tell if he decides to retire and do something else, or possibly see if any NHL teams will seek his services for the 2018-19 season. He and his family reside in the Buffalo area during the league seasons, and they spend the summer back in Greece with family and friends.