Alumni Corner: Paul Boutilier

It may be nearly 40 years since Paul Boutilier dressed in a game for the New York Islanders, but even so, the former Islanders defenseman and member of the 1983 Stanley Cup-winning team has still found relevance and value in some of the lessons that he learned during his time on the Island.
Now, he's made it his mission to imprint those foundations on the next generation of hockey players that he works with as a personal coach and mentor.

"Nowadays, ironically 40 years later, the game is really modernized and the position of defense has really modernized from back then to where it is today," Boutilier said. "There's so much that Mr. Arbour and all of his principles and foundations that I use today with the guys that are playing the game. By no means can you go and win without a lot of the principles that Al taught and were important to winning and can be used in the modern game. It all links back."
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Boutilier was drafted by the Islanders in the first round (21st overall) in 1981. Having grown up in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Boutilier recalled teams like Toronto, Montreal and Boston being the local favorites, but the Islanders were a 'dynasty in the making' as he called it.
"The greatest thing about being drafted by the reigning Stanley Cup champions is you feel like, 'Wow, that's pretty special,'" Boutilier said. "The hardest thing about being drafted by the Stanley Cup champions is how do I get on the team? That's the hard part. I was fortunate enough to get on the team and play one of those roles that was taught that everyone needed to be a part of it. That was the Islander culture, showing that winning championships taking everybody. It's something you carry forward through every aspect of your life."
Boutilier split the 1982-83 season between his junior team, the St. Jean Castors, in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) and the Islanders. After 29 regular season games with the Islanders, where he put up nine points (4G, 5A), the left-shot blueliner saw action in two playoff games en-route to the Islanders' fourth-straight Stanley Cup win.
"The Stanley Cup win was something," Boutillier said. "Getting your name on the cup, being a part of it, you'll never forget that for the rest of your life. The 19-series wins, to still have that record and be a small part of that. But I was one of the younger guys back then and you just soak up all of the experience that they had. They showed me so much. Coming into a Stanley Cup champion [winning team], you don't have a bunch of opportunities to make mistakes and be a rookie, move your way along and feel it out. You were on a bit of a crash course to learn as much as you could, as quickly as you could and to perform as best as you could. They certainly helped me out in a huge way."
Boutilier recalls and still admires the selfless, team-first the Islanders abided by under Al Arbour - that holds true today - and largely attributes that mentality to the franchise's historic successes. While Boutilier was a budding young d-man he recalls Denis Potvin and his future d-partners, Ken Morrow and Stefan Persson, looking out for him. Boutilier noted that with the Islanders, it didn't matter if you were the star player or the extra skater, that winning group made sure everyone felt as though their contribution was equally important.

"We were trained by [that group of four-time Stanley Cup champions] and it's something that I take into what I do today," Boutilier said. "There's a saying that's really stuck, it was said by Butch Goring. He used to say, 'We don't go around telling everybody how great we are. We just go out on the ice every night and show how good we are.' It's sort of become an Islander tradition, but I remember Butch saying that many times."
But of course, all of those words of wisdom stem back to Arbour and Bill Torrey. Boutilier chuckled when recalling what it was like to play for such an esteemed coach like Arbour. When Boutilier first joined the Islanders, he was an offensive-minded defenseman - much like what the modern puck-mover has evolved into - but he noted that the details and discipline of his game were refined by Arbour.
After a few seasons of adjusting to playing under Arbour's expectations, Boutilier found confidence in his game and strung together two, 30-plus point seasons in his last two years with the Islanders in 1985 and 1986.
But it was those lessons from Arbour that inspired him to share the insight with the new wave of defensemen.
"Being trained by Mr. Arbour back in the day, I had a doctoral degree in how to play defense," Boutilier said with a laugh. "Without having a degree, but if you spent some time with Mr. Arbour, you had an honorary degree. I figured I might as well use it. I didn't know whether it was something that was unique or not. I had an inclination that it might be, but when I put it all together it seems to be something that is a valuable resource for a lot of players. I've enjoyed the last grouping of years a lot. We continue to do so with this group of guys."
After four seasons with the Islanders, Boutilier went on to play another three years in the NHL with stops at; Boston, the Minnesota North Stars, the New York Rangers and Winnipeg Jets. Through eight seasons in the NHL, he compiled a career total of 110 points (27G, 83A).
Boutilier transitioned his life after hockey to earning a master's degree in business at Saint Mary's University in Nova Scotia where he also coached the men's hockey program simultaneously. With his degree, he taught a few courses of international business at the University of Rhode Island Princeton.
While Boutilier enjoyed his time in the classroom, he found himself drawn back to the game. Becoming a teacher for a few years was the perfect transition and helpful introduction for him to merge his two passions to get back in the hockey realm.
He worked his way into becoming a development coach for the Nashville Predators and then, as a development and assistant coach for the Saint John Sea Dogs in the QMJHL. Subsequently, he joined the staff of the Belleville Senators in the AHL from 2017-19.

"Now, I do a personal mentorship coaching job, almost like a personal coach for some professionals," Boutilier said. "I have a group of guys in the National Hockey League, I have a group in the American League and I have a few prospects that are moving along that I work with. It's really nice to be working with different groups at different levels."
Boutilier works with a group of NHL players that includes; Ottawa's Thomas Chabot, Columbus' David Savard and the Islanders own Noah Dobson. While Boutilier works specifically with defensemen, he enjoys the challenge of having a variation of players with a range of experience levels.
"There isn't anybody that's close to being the same," Boutilier said. "From the personality, the skill, everything, they're all different. Being that it's individual and not taught in a group of six, eight or 10 people, I'd consider that really hard to do. Everybody is at different levels, the way they each learn is different, the skills they come in with are different, but everyone has a unique style. My job is just to enhance that a bit in certain areas and deliver some of that experience to help them have success in their careers."
Boutilier's teachings relay the very lessons that Arbour taught him nearly 40 years ago. While the game has evolved in so many different facets since the hard-hitting, old-school style of hockey in the 80s, Boutilier has found the core of the message is still relevant and has even noticed it's a logic that is maintained by the current group of Islanders players.
"The biggest thing that transfers over is that there's learning how to play defense and the position and then, there's learning how to play the position to win," Boutilier said. "Those I learned from Al Arbour. They're totally disconnected. There's a way to play defense to win and there's a way to play defense. They're two different things. The guys I try to work with now, I try to take those principles to teach them how to play defense to win. When the team wins, everybody wins no matter if you're the star or really anyone else, when the team wins you win for the long term. That's where the Islanders are heading now."
For Boutilier, nothing has been more gratifying outside of winning a Stanley Cup maybe - than merging the values true to the roots of the Islander organization which he was fortunate enough to learn first handedly by a legendary group and fostering those insights with some up-and-coming talent.
"I've kept the second-best job that I can of trying to share [those foundations] with some of the players that I work with today," Boutilier said. "I try to give them every bit of information to try and put them in a spot to be successful. That all comes from back on the Island and back with that group. The guys today will have a big smile on their face doing a lot of the same things that we were doing back then. Because when you're successful, hockey is great and especially when you win, it's an unbelievable feeling. The Islander way has always been to go out and show them how good we are on the ice and don't worry about the rest of it. That's what I try to communicate back to the guys that I teach."