Bo takes a final bow

The 11th Canadian to earn IIHF Triple Gold Club membership, Jay Bouwmeester has retired from hockey.

Jason La Rose

There really wasn’t much Jay Bouwmeester didn’t accomplish on the ice.

The defenceman, who officially announced his retirement on Monday, was the 29th and most recent player to earn membership in the IIHF Triple Gold Club, having won a Stanley Cup (2019), Olympic gold medal (2014) and IIHF World Championship gold medal (2003, 2004).

His international journey began nearly two decades before he earned the last piece of that rare trifecta with the St. Louis Blues, when he cracked the roster of Canada’s National Junior Team for the first time.

Just 10 months after he represented Alberta at the 1999 Canada Winter Games, the Edmonton native became the youngest player to make Team Canada – his debut at the 2000 World Juniors came at 16 years, two months and 29 days – a record he still holds.

Bouwmeester made three appearances at the World Juniors, winning a silver (2002) and two bronze (2000, 2001) before making the jump to the IIHF World Championship in 2003 following his rookie NHL season with the Florida Panthers.

He turned in his greatest international performance in Finland, winning Top Defenceman honours and earning a place on the Media All-Star Team after posting seven points in nine games and, most importantly, helping Canada to a gold medal.

Bouwmeester was back at the worlds a year later, scoring the game-winning goal 20 seconds into the third period in a 5-3 win over Sweden in the gold medal game, and he helped Canada to a 2004 World Cup title just four months after that.

In 2006 he was an injury replacement for Scott Niedermayer for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, and he made his final two appearances at the world championship in 2008 – winning a silver medal on home ice in Quebec City and Halifax – and 2012.

Bouwmeester added Olympic gold to his collection in 2014 as a veteran presence on the Canadian blueline in Sochi, before rounding out his international career with a second World Cup of Hockey title in 2016.

In total, he recorded 18 points (five goals, 13 assists) across 78 Team Canada games, spanning almost 17 years.

The third-overall pick by Florida in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, Bouwmeester played 1,240 NHL games with the Panthers, Blues and Calgary Flames before his career was prematurely ended when he suffered cardiac arrest on the bench during a game on Feb. 11, 2020.

When the Blues won the Stanley Cup he became the 11th Canadian to earn Triple Gold status, joining Rob Blake, Joe Sakic, Brendan Shanahan, Niedermayer, Chris Pronger, Eric Staal, Jonathan Toews, Patrice Bergeron, Sidney Crosby and Corey Perry.

He finished with 424 points (88 goals, 336 assists) and skated in a pair of NHL All-Star Games (2007, 2009).