Bulbul Kartanbay or Bulbul Kartanbayeva ( kk, Булбул Картанбай, Булбул Картанбаева; born 30 July 1993) is a Kazakh

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

and a member of the Kazakh national team, playing in the Swiss

Women's League A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

with Neuchâtel Hockey Academy. Kartanbay is founder and owner of the first women’s ice hockey academy in Kazakhstan. She was the first player from

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

to play in the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL; renamed PHF in 2021) and to be affiliated with the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA).

Playing career

Kartanbay was

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of Tomyris Astana in the Kazakh city of Astana (Nur-Sultan) before being drafted 15th overall by the

Boston Blades The Worcester Blades were a professional women's ice hockey team in the Canadian Women's Hockey League, based in Worcester, Massachusetts, and played their home games at the Fidelity Bank Worcester Ice Center. The team began play in the 2010–11 ...

in the

2017 CWHL Draft The 2017 CWHL draft was the eighth in the history of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. It took place on August 20, 2017, marking the first time that the Draft involved Kunlun Red Star WIH, one of two expansion teams in the league, who are also ...

. In 2018, she moved to North America to tryout for the Calgary Inferno of the

Canadian Women's Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; french: Ligue canadienne de hockey féminin ‒ LCHF) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the league ...

(CWHL). She signed her first North American contract with the NWHL's Metropolitan Riveters in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. After facing issues getting her visa processed – which delayed receipt of her pay until halfway through the season – she played just ten games with the Riveters before being sidelined due to a concussion sustained in a car accident. In June 2020, Kartanbay was appointed one of the head coaches for the Princeton Tiger Lilies, an elite girls'

minor Minor may refer to: * Minor (law), a person under the age of certain legal activities. ** A person who has not reached the age of majority * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Music theory *Minor chord ** Barb ...

and junior club in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. In September, it was announced that she was joining the New Hampshire section of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), though she ultimately became affiliated as an independent player rather than joining a regional section.

International

Kartanbay has played over 30 games for the senior Kazakh women's national team, first making the team as a teenager in 2012 and later serving as captain.

Personal life

Kartanbay has a degree in tourism and hospitality from the

International Information Technology University International IT University or International university of information technologies ( kk, Халықаралық ақпараттық технологиялар университеті, ''Halyqaralyq aqparattyq tehnologııalar ýnıversıteti'' ...

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to ...

. Outside of hockey, she owns a bakery. Also, Bulbul has her own hockey brand "Kartanbay brand". Bulbul was finalist of "100 new faces of Kazakhstan" 30 April 2021; "Forbes 30 under 30" 2021 - Sport. She is a social entrepreneur, working on women's sports development in her country.

Career statistics

References

External links

* 1993 births Living people European Women's Hockey League players Kazakhstani expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Kazakhstani women's ice hockey forwards Metropolitan Riveters players Professional Women's Hockey Players Association players Ice hockey people from Almaty Swiss Women's League players Expatriate ice hockey players in Switzerland Kazakhstani expatriate ice hockey players in the United States {{Kazakhstan-icehockey-bio-stub