Faceoff Factor

WBS Penguins Nearing End of Era

Kyle Dreibelbies | WBS "Baby" Penguins

Apr 17, 06:44 AM | Hype this story!

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have been celebrating the end of an entertaining era in their history. Two-time Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin and one-time AHL all-star RW Dennis Bonvie is retiring at the end of this season. During his last season, teams have formed handshake lines to pay their respects after games and given him gifts and sponsored promotions to honor him, many of them naming him honorary ‘fourth star’ of the game in his last visit to their arenas.

On the night of his last regular-season game in the Wachovia Arena, an arena sometimes referred to as “the House that Bonvie Built”, fans were presented with a poster and DVD of his highlights while the team honored him by naming him team captain for the game. After the game, the team gave him the bench from his office at the arena, the penalty box.

Love him or hate him, Bonvie always kept the fans entertained with his physical play. In a game where many enforcers will, at times, cross the line due to emotional situations in the game, Bonvie has mostly kept his cool and remained clear of suspension-worthy incidents.

While Bonvie, a 5’11”, 205-pound right winger, has appeared in 92 National Hockey League games with six different NHL teams since being turned pro in 1993 by the Edmonton Oilers, he has spent the vast majority of his career in the AHL in which he has played with eight different clubs. He has averaged a respectable 0.34 points/game in his AHL career (260 points on 80 goals and 180 assists through 2005-06). His lone goal in the NHL came as a member of the Boston Bruins, a 5-hole wrist shot that beat Chris Osgood.

As a member of the Hamilton Bulldogs in 1996-97 where he mentored future enforcer Georges Laraque, Bonvie established a then single season AHL record for penalty minutes (PIM) with 522, a lofty mark that stood for eight seasons before finally being eclipsed in 2004-05 by Brian McGrattan of the Binghamton Senators with 551. (Bonvie was a mentor to McGrattan while they were teammates in Binghamton for parts of the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.)

Bonvie’s eventual career AHL penalty minute total, however, is unlikely to ever be exceeded as he had already collected 4,488 minutes (in just 871 regular season games), a remarkable 1,164 more than now retired center Rob Murray’s second overall career AHL record high total 2,940 PIM in 1,018 League games over fifteen seasons. As Bonvie has also amassed an additional 295 PIM in 93 AHL Calder Cup play-off games as well 311 PIM in his 92 NHL regular season contests for an overall combined total of 4,804 minutes, he has thus spent the equivalent over eighty full games in the penalty box — or one full AHL season — during his now 13+ year pro hockey career.

Bonvie has lost a step, his reflexes are slowed and injury recovery time has increased, so this is a good time for him to leave the game. He is setting a fine example for athletes by leaving the game on his terms at his time. Although he will most likely not see much ice time during this Calder Cup run, there is no doubt that he will always be a part of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins history.