BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Bobo Carpenter admits it. He never imagined his career would lead him here.
Not to a foreign country where hockey has little tradition, to a city 3,000 miles from home. But as he reflected on his career in the concourse of Belfast’s SSE Arena, the former Boston University men’s hockey captain said his winding professional hockey journey has given him a newfound outlook on the sport.
He shared that perspective when catching up with the Terriers Thursday night over Thanksgiving dinner at Belfast’s Titanic Museum.
His first piece of advice: You never know where the game will take you.
Like just about everyone in college hockey, Carpenter’s goal was the NHL. And he got oh-so-close. After an impressive four-year career with the Terriers (102 points in 144 games from 2015-19), Carpenter played seven seasons in the AHL and ECHL before joining the Belfast Giants of the United Kingdom’s Elite Ice Hockey League.
Carpenter says he’d still love to play in the NHL, but he understands that path is becoming more difficult with time (he’s now 28). So he has embraced the opportunity to play abroad in Northern Ireland.
“The sport can take you to so many areas and see so many different places,” Carpenter said. “So it’s cool where it can take you in the world and what you can experience and what it offers you outside of reaching that end goal of the NHL.”
At a high-end college hockey program like BU, just about every player on the roster is laser-focused on earning a shot with an NHL team. Some will. Many won’t.
Carpenter hopes his journey shows those at BU that the NHL isn’t the only pathway to a fruitful pro hockey career.
“To be realistic, not everyone is going to play in the NHL,” head coach Jay Pandolfo said. “But there’s other great opportunities to have a good experience playing hockey. You can do it for a long time. So I’m sure Bobo was in conversation with some guys.”
Carpenter’s other key point: You never know who’s watching.
When he traveled to Belfast with BU for the 2018 Friendship Four, Carpenter didn’t think much of the trip besides it being a neat opportunity to play in a foreign country and travel. On the flight home to Boston, he joked with his teammates about how they’d never play at the rink in Belfast again.
“That was cool, we played two games there and that was a great experience” he remembers saying. “But…”
Carpenter had no idea at the time, but Giants head coach Adam Keefe had taken a liking to his play style after watching the tournament from the stands. After graduation, the coach offered Carpenter a roster spot.
Six years later, here he is.
“Just having that connection and that opportunity to kind of showcase what I can do and offer went a long way,” Carpenter said.
The chance to reunite with the Terriers this week was also a full circle moment for Carpenter — in a few different ways.
Bobo’s father, Bobby Carpenter, and Pandolfo played together on the New Jersey Devils for three seasons (1997-99), when Bobo and his sister Alex were toddlers. Bobby would bring them onto the ice, and Pandolfo said he still remembers a young Bobo running around the Devils locker room in those days.
So, Bobo and Pandolfo reconnected at a practice in Belfast, and then again at the Thanksgiving dinner. They’ve stayed in touch over the years, and Carpenter said he periodically reaches out with a text to check in. And Carpenter also spent time catching up with people still around from his days with the team — like trainer Bridget Salvador and Director of Athletics Drew Marrochello.
“Through hockey, it’s just such a small world so it’s neat to kind of reconnect,” Carpenter said. “Being able to see some familiar faces from here was really special.”
More reading from the Friendship Four:
Recent Comments