As we continue our series BINGHAMTON BRED, where we look at the stories of the greatest athletes from the Southern Tier, we highlight the journey of Mike Dunham, former NHL goalie and current Goalie Development Coach for the Boston Bruins.

Born in Endwell, Dunham grew up attending Broome County Dusters and Binghamton Whalers games with his family at Broome County Arena. He got his start playing hockey in the Southern Tier Hockey Association, where one of his earliest coaches was Tom Mitchell. Mitchell recalls that Dunham “took it... more serious than... the other kids on the team.”

When it became clear that Dunham could have a future in hockey, he enrolled at Canterbury Prep School, and later committed to the University of Maine. In his third and final season of college hockey, Maine’s Black Bears had a historic season, putting up a record of 42-1-2 and winning the NCAA Championship.

In only his freshman year of college, Dunham was selected 53rd overall by the New Jersey Devils in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft. However, he wouldn’t play for the Devils franchise for another three years. In 1993, Dunham made his professional hockey debut for the Devil’s AHL affiliate, the Albany River Rats. With Dunham in goal, the River Rats would win a Calder Cup in 1995. Dunham says that winning the Calder Cup “was special because I grew up watching AHL hockey."

It was in Albany where Dunham would reunite with an old family friend from back in Binghamton, Jacques Caron. Caron took golf lessons with Dunham’s father when he was coaching the Binghamton Whalers over a decade earlier. Now the Devils goalie coach, Caron went to Albany to help the goalies there during an NHL lockout.

After three seasons in Albany, Dunham got the call-up and played in his first NHL game for the Devils in 1996. This same season, Dunham and legendary goaltender Martin Brodeur won the William M. Jennings trophy, awarded each year to a goaltending pair that played a minimum of 25 games and allowed the fewest goals. 

Dunham’s time with the Devils would come to an end in 1998 when he was selected in the NHL Expansion Draft to play for hockey’s newest franchise, the Nashville Predators. He would go on to play for the Rangers, Thrashers, and Islanders before making the transition from Islanders goalie to Islanders goalie coach. Dunham says that "it was an easy transition for me because I was still around the same people that I was around the year before."

In addition to his professional success in the National Hockey League, Dunham also thrived on the international stage. He participated in three Olympics, taking home a silver medal for Team USA in his final Olympic Games in 2002.

After finishing his playing career with the Islanders in 2007, Dunham returned the following season as the goalie coach, a position he held for nine years before taking on his current role as Goalie Development Coach for the Boston Bruins.