Being traded midway through a season is never easy. For 29-year old defenseman Patrick Mullen arriving to the Milwaukee Admirals from the Binghamton Senators was the second time in his career that he was moved out in the middle of an AHL season. In 2013-14 he was flipped from the Vancouver Canucks organization, where he had been playing for the Utica Comets, to the Ottawa Senators.

When he was traded away from the Senators organization in exchange for Conor Allen it was part of a big defensive transformation done in a way to balance out the Admirals who lacked right handed shots. The results of that change were rather immediate and effective. In his first 13 games with the Admirals the team went 9-3-1-0. Then the unfortunate happened.

While playing against the Iowa Wild in Milwaukee on 2/21/16 Mullen suffered an injury that always leaves me shocked that it doesn’t happen more often than it does. He was falling down and an opponent’s skate caught him underneath the cuff of his glove and sliced into him badly. I had initially been told he suffered thirteen stitches and narrowly avoided tendon damage. In sitting down with him Monday night at organization’s Celebrity Serve event he showed me the scar and said it was fourteen stitches. He went on to miss eight-games as his wound healed and has since suited up for the last three-games.

Mullen is yet another one of those players on the Admirals roster who I wonder if folks know the family from which he comes from. His father, Joe Mullen, had a tremendous collegiate and professional career. He was a three-time Stanley Cup winner, the recipient of the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy twice, and inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2000. His uncle, Brian Mullen, also had an outstanding professional playing career that included an NCAA Championship with the Wisconsin Badgers (1980-81), an NHL All-Star Game selection (1988-89), and 832 games of NHL experience as a member of the Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers, San Jose Sharks, and New York Islanders.

~Fifteen~

Thanks very much to Patrick Mullen for taking the time to conduct this interview as well as our ol’ pal Max Reinhart for his cameo appearances in it. Fifteen currently is at a stand still until the next wave of interviews can be conducted. Until then, keep tuned because the list of players is almost completed.

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