Robbie Bina
Encyclopedia
Robert Bina commonly known as Robbie Bina, is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 professional ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 defenceman who plays for the Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). A graduate of the University of North Dakota
University of North Dakota
The University of North Dakota is a public university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA. Established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of North Dakota, UND is the oldest and largest university in the state and enrolls over 14,000 students. ...

, Bina overcame a serious injury in his sophomore year to start his professional career in American minor league
Minor league
Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities. This term is used in North America with regard to several organizations competing in...

 hockey in 2008. With the Las Vegas Wranglers
Las Vegas Wranglers
The Las Vegas Wranglers are a professional ice hockey team based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Wranglers are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the ECHL...

 in his second
2009–10 ECHL season
The 2009–10 ECHL season was the 22nd season of the ECHL. It ran from October, 2009 until April, 2010, followed by the Kelly Cup playoffs which lasted until May 21, 2010 as the Cincinnati Cyclones won their second Kelly Cup championship in three years by defeating the Idaho Steelheads in five games...

 season, Bina developed an offensive talent that was rewarded with a starting position in the 2010 ECHL All-Star Game
2010 ECHL All-Star Game
The 2010 ECHL All-Star Game presented by Reebok was the held at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California, United States, home of the Ontario Reign. The game will be held between two teams, each representing a conference of the ECHL.The game was part of a two day event of activities...

, although he chose to forgo the opportunity in favour of playing overseas. In Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, he helped the Stavanger Oilers
Stavanger Oilers
Stavanger Oilers is an ice hockey club from Stavanger, Norway. They currently play in the GET-ligaen, which is the top division in Norwegian ice hockey. The club's official name is Stavanger Ishockeyklubb, but it is commonly known as Oilers...

 win their first ever title, the 2010 Norwegian Championship
2009–10 GET-ligaen season
The 2009–10 GET-ligaen was the seventieth season of Norway's premier ice hockey league, Eliteserien . The regular season began play on 12 September 2009 and concluded on 2 March 2010, with Vålerenga claiming their twenty-seventh League Championship after defeating Lillehammer 2–1 on 26 February...

, and was named the most valuable player
Most Valuable Player
In sports, a Most Valuable Player award is an honor typically bestowed upon the best performing player or players on a specific team, in an entire league, or for a particular contest or series of contests...

 of the tournament. He was subsequently signed by Wolfsburg on a one-year contract.

College hockey

Robbie Bina, a native of Grand Forks
Grand Forks, North Dakota
Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 52,838, while that of the city and surrounding metropolitan area was 98,461...

, attended the University of North Dakota
University of North Dakota
The University of North Dakota is a public university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA. Established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of North Dakota, UND is the oldest and largest university in the state and enrolls over 14,000 students. ...

 from 2003 to 2008. While there, he was a member of the university's Fighting Sioux ice hockey team (he also played American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 and baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

), competing in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association
Western Collegiate Hockey Association
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association is a college athletic conference which operates over a wide area of the Midwestern and Western United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as an ice hockey-only conference....

 (WCHA) of the NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...

. In his debut season, Bina led the Fighting Sioux rookie defencemen with eight points in 31 games, scoring the first goal of his college hockey career against the Denver Pioneers
Denver Pioneers men's ice hockey
The University of Denver Men's Hockey Program has been playing NCAA Division I hockey since 1949. Pioneer Hockey is one of the most successful hockey programs in the history of collegiate hockey. The Pioneers rank second in all-time NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championships with 7. Only the University...

 on 21 November 2003.

In the Semi-final of the 2005 WCHA playoffs against Denver, Bina sustained a career-threatening injury during a delayed penalty call against North Dakota. Having reached for the puck to stop play, he was hit illegally from behind by Denver winger
Winger (ice hockey)
Winger, in the game of hockey, is a forward position of a player whose primary zone of play on the ice is along the outer playing area. They typically work by flanking the centre forward. Originally the name was given to forward players who went up and down the sides of the rink...

 Geoff Paukovich
Geoff Paukovich
Geoff Paukovich is an American professional ice hockey player who is currently playing for the Las Vegas Wranglers in the ECHL. He was selected by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2nd round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft....

, causing him to crash into the boards and break his neck. Paukovich, who was "deeply regretful" about the incident, initially received a two-minute minor penalty for boarding
Boarding (ice hockey)
Boarding in ice hockey is a penalty called when an offending player violently pushes or checks an opposing player into the boards of the hockey rink. The boarding call is quite often a major penalty due to the likelihood of injury sustained by the player who was boarded, and officials have the...

, but was later given a one-game suspension by the NCAA and another from his coach, George Gwozdecky
George Gwozdecky
George Gwozdecky is an ice hockey coach who is currently the head coach for the University of Denver Pioneers hockey team. The Pioneers have won 2 national championships under his guidance...

. Bina underwent surgery to repair a shattered vertebra and was out for the remainder of the WCHA and NCAA
NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship
The annual NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship tournament determines the top men's ice hockey team in NCAA Division I and Division III. The semi-finals and finals of the Division I Championship are branded as the Frozen Four, a passing nod to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship - known...

 tournaments (in which the Fighting Sioux reached the Final of the Frozen Four), as well as the entire 2005–06 season.

Having fully recovered from his injury, Bina returned with a more offensive game in 2006–07, recording 10 goals and 22 assists in 43 games and helping his team reach their third consecutive Frozen Four. With 32 points in the season, he ranked first among the Fighting Sioux defencemen and fourth overall; on a national level he ranked fifteenth among defencemen in points per game. He scored two short handed goals, including one from 170 feet out against Minnesota
Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey
The Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey team is the college ice hockey team at the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. They are members of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I ice hockey...

. In the 2007–08 season, his senior year, Bina recorded two goals and 23 assists in 43 games, including a career high three assists against Colorado College
Colorado College
The Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell...

 on 2 November 2007, and was ranked second overall in terms of number of assists. North Dakota made the Frozen Four yet again, and Bina was named to the WCHA All-Academic team for the second year in a row.

Professional career

Upon graduating from the University of North Dakota, Robbie Bina signed his first professional
Professional sports
Professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, are sports in which athletes receive payment for their performance. Professional athleticism has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences, so that sports organizations...

 contract with the Edmonton Oilers
Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League ....

 organization in July 2008, a one year, two-way deal with affiliates, the Springfield Falcons
Springfield Falcons
The Springfield Falcons are an ice hockey team in the American Hockey League . They play in Springfield, Massachusetts, at the MassMutual Center and are the top affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League. The Falcons' two main rivals are the Connecticut Whale and the...

 of the AHL
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...

 and Stockton Thunder
Stockton Thunder
The Stockton Thunder are a minor league professional ice hockey team from Stockton, California. The Thunder are a member of the ECHL, and began playing in the 2005–06 season. The Stockton Arena is their home ice, providing a capacity for 9,737 fans...

 of the ECHL
ECHL
The ECHL is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Princeton, New Jersey with teams scattered across the United States...

. Appearing at the Edmonton training camp in September, he was "reunited" with Geoff Paukovich, who had played for Stockton since 2007. Having never spoken to each other about the incident until then, the two settled their differences quickly, becoming close teammates and friends. Bina ended up splitting the season between the AHL and ECHL, with similar results on each level: eight points in 37 games with the Falcons and eight points in 28 games with the Thunder. He enjoyed a solid postseason, scoring six points in 14 games with the Thunder, who were eventually eliminated in the Division Finals.

A free agent, Bina moved to Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...

 ahead of the 2009–10 season, joining the Las Vegas Wranglers
Las Vegas Wranglers
The Las Vegas Wranglers are a professional ice hockey team based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Wranglers are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the ECHL...

 of the ECHL. Having produced only modest offensive results during his rookie season, he was given the chance by Wranglers coach Ryan Mougenel to show off more of his playmaking potential, to which he responded positively. "He's never been put in that role as someone who can be counted on for offensive output. That's what he needed... He just skates so well. He's got great wheels and great vision. He creates that second wave of attack, which actually ends up paying dividends." Bina scored three goals and made 11 assists in 14 games; on 17 November, he was signed to a professional try-out with affiliates San Antonio Rampage
San Antonio Rampage
The San Antonio Rampage are an ice hockey team in the American Hockey League based in San Antonio, Texas. They are the top affiliate of the Florida Panthers of the NHL. Their home arena is the AT&T Center.-History:...

 of the AHL, but was released on 7 December after making only two appearances. Back in Las Vegas, Bina continued where he had left off, picking up another goal and three assists before the end of 2009, placing him near the top of the points standings among defencemen in the league. On 31 December he was selected as a starter in the 2010 ECHL All-Star Game
2010 ECHL All-Star Game
The 2010 ECHL All-Star Game presented by Reebok was the held at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California, United States, home of the Ontario Reign. The game will be held between two teams, each representing a conference of the ECHL.The game was part of a two day event of activities...

. "It's great to be chosen... There are going to be a lot of great players and I'm lucky to be there, it's an exciting thing." Two weeks later, however, Bina left the Wranglers to play in Europe, thereby missing out on what would have been the first all-star game appearance of his career. On 15 January, the Stavanger Oilers
Stavanger Oilers
Stavanger Oilers is an ice hockey club from Stavanger, Norway. They currently play in the GET-ligaen, which is the top division in Norwegian ice hockey. The club's official name is Stavanger Ishockeyklubb, but it is commonly known as Oilers...

 of the Norwegian Eliteserien
GET-ligaen
GET-ligaen is the premier Norwegian ice hockey league, organised by the Norwegian Ice Hockey Federation. The league was known as 1. divisjon until 1990, when it was reorganized and named Eliteserien . That name was held until 2004 when cable TV company UPC became main sponsor...

 announced that they had acquired his services until the end of the season.

Bina's stay in Norway was short but productive. With only 10 games left in the regular season, the American made little impact, with five points recorded in total, although Stavanger were able to advance from fifth to third place in the standings. Of far greater significance was his performance in the playoffs, where he scored four goals and made 16 assists to become the second leading points scorer. The Oilers knocked out Lørenskog in the Quarter-finals and the Sparta Warriors
Sparta Warriors
The Sparta Warriors are an ice hockey team in Sarpsborg, Norway playing in the GET League. The official name of the club is Ishockeyklubben Sparta Sarpsborg. They play their home games in the Sparta Amfi arena...

 in Semi-finals, eventually taking home their first ever Norwegian Championship title by defeating perennial favourites Vålerenga
Vålerenga Ishockey
Vålerenga Ishockey is an Oslo-based ice hockey club, and a part of the Vålerenga IF multi-sports club. Their home arena is Jordal Amfi, located in eastern Oslo. Jordal Amfi was built for the 1952 Winter Olympics. The mother club was founded in 1913, but the did not take up ice hockey until the late...

 in six games in the Finals. Bina was named most valuable player by the Norwegian Ice Hockey Association for his efforts, and was also selected to the league's All-Star Team.

Following the playoffs, the Oilers worked hard to get Bina onboard for another season, but despite their best efforts, he elected instead to sign a one year deal with the Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. Having scouted Bina during the playoffs, Grizzlys general manager
General manager
General manager is a descriptive term for certain executives in a business operation. It is also a formal title held by some business executives, most commonly in the hospitality industry.-Generic usage:...

 Karl-Heinz Fliegauf described him as a very good skater who acted intelligently on the ice, especially during power plays
Power play (sport)
"Power play" is a sporting term used in various games.*In ice hockey, a team is said to be on a power play when at least one opposing player is serving a penalty, and the team has a numerical advantage on the ice...

. Fliegauf also emphasized Bina's right-handed shot
Shot (ice hockey)
A shot in ice hockey is an attempt by a player to score a goal by striking the puck with their stick in the direction of the net.-Shovel:The shovel shot is the simplest most basic shot in a shooter's arsenal. Its execution is simply a shoveling motion to push the puck in the desired direction...

 when making the decision to sign him.

Career statistics

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season
Season (sports)
In an organized sports league, a season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session. For example, in Major League Baseball, one season lasts approximately from April 1 through October 1; in Association football, it is generally from August until May In an...

Team League GP G
Goal (ice hockey)
In ice hockey, a goal is scored when the puck completely crosses the goal line between the two goal posts and below the goal crossbar. A goal awards one point to the team attacking the goal scored upon, regardless of which team the player who actually deflected the puck into the goal belongs to...

A
Assist (ice hockey)
In ice hockey, an assist is attributed to up to two players of the scoring team who shot, passed or deflected the puck towards the scoring teammate, or touched it in any other way which enabled the goal, meaning that they were "assisting" in the goal. There can be a maximum of two assists per goal...

Pts
Point (ice hockey)
Point in ice hockey has three official meanings:* A point is awarded to a player for each goal scored or assist earned. The total number of goals plus assists equals total points. In some European leagues, a goal counts as two points, and an assist counts as one...

PIM
Penalty (ice hockey)
A penalty in ice hockey is a punishment for inappropriate behavior. Most penalties are enforced by detaining the offending player within a penalty box for a set number of minutes, during which, the player can not participate in play. The offending team usually may not replace the player on the ice,...

GP G A Pts PIM
2002–03 Lincoln Stars
Lincoln Stars
The Lincoln Stars are a Tier 1 junior ice hockey team playing in the West Division of the United States Hockey League .The Stars' home ice is the Ice Box, on the Nebraska State Fair grounds and adjacent to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln....

USHL
United States Hockey League
The United States Hockey League is the top junior ice hockey league in the United States. The USHL has 16 member teams located in the Midwestern United States, consisting of players who are 20 years of age and younger...

34 4 9 13 29 10 0 6 6 6
2003–04 North Dakota Fighting Sioux WCHA
Western Collegiate Hockey Association
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association is a college athletic conference which operates over a wide area of the Midwestern and Western United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as an ice hockey-only conference....

31 1 7 8 6
2004–05 North Dakota Fighting Sioux WCHA 32 0 9 9 8
2006–07 North Dakota Fighting Sioux WCHA 43 10 22 32 46
2007–08 North Dakota Fighting Sioux WCHA 43 2 23 25 42
2008–09
2008–09 ECHL season
The 2008-09 ECHL season was the 21st of the ECHL. The league welcomed one new franchise, the Ontario Reign, which will relocate from Beaumont, Texas and will play at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, CA. Two teams, the Columbia Inferno and the Myrtle Beach Thunderboltz, will voluntary...

Stockton Thunder
Stockton Thunder
The Stockton Thunder are a minor league professional ice hockey team from Stockton, California. The Thunder are a member of the ECHL, and began playing in the 2005–06 season. The Stockton Arena is their home ice, providing a capacity for 9,737 fans...

ECHL 28 1 7 8 26 14 2 4 6 8
2008–09
2008–09 AHL season
The 2008–09 AHL season is the 73rd season of the American Hockey League. 29 teams each played 80 games in the regular season, which ran from October 8 until April 12.-Team and NHL affiliation changes:...

Springfield Falcons
Springfield Falcons
The Springfield Falcons are an ice hockey team in the American Hockey League . They play in Springfield, Massachusetts, at the MassMutual Center and are the top affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League. The Falcons' two main rivals are the Connecticut Whale and the...

AHL
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...

37 1 7 8 30
2009–10
2009–10 ECHL season
The 2009–10 ECHL season was the 22nd season of the ECHL. It ran from October, 2009 until April, 2010, followed by the Kelly Cup playoffs which lasted until May 21, 2010 as the Cincinnati Cyclones won their second Kelly Cup championship in three years by defeating the Idaho Steelheads in five games...

Las Vegas Wranglers
Las Vegas Wranglers
The Las Vegas Wranglers are a professional ice hockey team based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Wranglers are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the ECHL...

ECHL 27 5 17 22 26
2009–10
2009–10 AHL season
The 2009–10 AHL season was the 74th season of the American Hockey League. Twenty-nine teams played 80 regular-season games each from October 2 to April 11...

San Antonio Rampage
San Antonio Rampage
The San Antonio Rampage are an ice hockey team in the American Hockey League based in San Antonio, Texas. They are the top affiliate of the Florida Panthers of the NHL. Their home arena is the AT&T Center.-History:...

AHL 2 0 1 1 0
2009–10
2009–10 GET-ligaen season
The 2009–10 GET-ligaen was the seventieth season of Norway's premier ice hockey league, Eliteserien . The regular season began play on 12 September 2009 and concluded on 2 March 2010, with Vålerenga claiming their twenty-seventh League Championship after defeating Lillehammer 2–1 on 26 February...

Stavanger Oilers
Stavanger Oilers
Stavanger Oilers is an ice hockey club from Stavanger, Norway. They currently play in the GET-ligaen, which is the top division in Norwegian ice hockey. The club's official name is Stavanger Ishockeyklubb, but it is commonly known as Oilers...

GET
GET-ligaen
GET-ligaen is the premier Norwegian ice hockey league, organised by the Norwegian Ice Hockey Federation. The league was known as 1. divisjon until 1990, when it was reorganized and named Eliteserien . That name was held until 2004 when cable TV company UPC became main sponsor...

10 2 3 5 4 18 4 16 20 4
2010–11
2010–11 Deutsche Eishockey Liga season
-Regular season:GP = Games Played, W = Wins, OTW = Overtime win, SOW = Shootout win, OTL = Overtime loss, SOL = Shootout loss, L = LossColor code:     = Direct Playoff qualification,     = Playoff qualification round,     = No playoff -Playoff...

Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg DEL 52 2 18 20 48 9 0 2 2 4
DEL totals 52 2 18 20 48 9 0 2 2 4

External links

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