What do Brett Bulmer and Devin Setoguchi have in common?
Aside from the fact they're both hockey forwards with Prince George ties, they will start the season as teammates playing in the NHL for the Minnesota Wild.
Bulmer found out following Friday's 4-3 preseason shootout loss to Edmonton he's made the Wild's 23-player roster. The six-foot-three, 185-pound left winger will start the season Thursday night in Minnesota against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Bulmer's parents, Lance and Charon, are heading south from Prince George to watch the game live at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, having seen him play an exhibition game in Edmonton on Sept. 20.
The NHL rule on players still eligible to play junior hockey will allow the Wild to keep Bulmer for nine games before his $740,000 NHL salary kicks in.
"I hope he can make it to 10 games -- he can never pay me back all the money I've spent on him," quipped Lance Bulmer. "We'll be ordering NHL Centre Ice [cable TV package] to watch all his games."
The 19-year-old Bulmer was attending a team retreat in Duluth, Minn., and could not be reached for comment. He finished with one goal and one assist in the exhibition season, which ended Friday with Bulmer getting involved in a scrap with Lennert Petrell of the Oilers late in the game.
Bulmer, a former Cariboo Cougar midget, played the past two seasons in the WHL for the Kelowna Rockets. In 57 games with the Rockets last season he collected 18 goals and 31 assists for 45 points, as well as 109 penalty minutes. He played eight playoff games in the AHL last spring for the Houston Aeros, the Wild's farm team.
Bulmer joins Setoguchi, a former Prince George Cougar traded to the Wild this summer from San Jose, on a list of Wild forwards that includes: Mikko Koivu, Dany Heatley, Guillaume Latendresse, Matt Cullen, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Darroll Powe, Kyle Brodziak, Cal Clutterbuck, Colton Gillies, Brad Staubitz, Eric Nystrom, and Nick Johnson.
