Neither Mike Milbury nor Todd Bertuzzi were strangers to controversy during their time in the National Hockey League, so it should probably come as little surprise that when the two crossed paths they didn’t exactly see eye to eye.
That crossing of paths took place when both men were with the New York Islanders organization, with Bertuzzi a relatively young NHL player for the Islanders while Milbury served as the team’s general manager. Recently Bertuzzi opened up about the experience and he didn’t have a lot of positive things to say about the controversial Milbury.
“Me and Mike had a tough relationship,” said Bertuzzi. “I’m a forgiving dude, there was s*** that happened to me in those times with Mike that probably shouldn’t have happened.”
Bertuzzi wasn’t enjoying his time with the Islanders and he made his feelings known to Milbury, a decision that would prove to be costly for the young Bertuzzi. According to Bertuzzi, Milbury would respond to those comments by making Bertuzzi’s life as difficult as possible.
“I asked for a trade so he said ‘Ok leave the room I’ll see what I can do.'” said Bertuzzi. “
Unfortunately Bertuzzi would find himself traded not to another team, but to another league instead.
“His secretary Ginger called me back into the room 5 minutes later and he got me traded,” said Bertuzzi before adding “He goes ‘Yep you just got traded to the Utah Grizzlies pack your s*** and go down and have some fun. down there f***er.'”
Being sent down would have been one thing, but Bertuzzi would proceed to make the trip to Utah only to be then called back up to the main roster. Bertuzzi would do so only to find out that he had made a healthy scratch before once again being sent back down to Utah. This process repeated itself several times according to the NHL veteran, seemingly another form of revenge on the part of Milbury.
Although it was no doubt an abysmal experience for Bertuzzi, he would eventually be traded to the Vancouver Canucks where he took his career to the next level.
“I was fortunate to stay down there, play 13 games, and then one of the biggest life changing trades happened for me where I got traded to Vancouver,” admitted Bertuzzi.
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