This past weekend in Leduc Alberta, NHLOA Alumni linesman Randy Mitton who worked an impressive 2,109 NHL Regular Season Games and also 156 NHL Playoffs Games was inducted into the Leduc Sports Hall of Fame. This year was the second induction ceremony held by this young Sports Hall of Fame. Leduc is a fast growing and dynamic city located about a 25 minutes drive south of Edmonton. In association with the Leduc Minor Hockey Association, the Sports Hall of Fame wants to honor some of their extraordinary individuals for their significant contributions and leadership to the development of sport in Leduc. Every year, up to four outstanding athletes, teams, leaders or builders that made a positive impact in the region will receive this distinguished award. This year’s ceremony was held this on Saturday (Oct. 21) at the Nisku Inn and Conference Centre and saw four extraordinary individuals being inducted.

2017 Leduc Sports Hall of Fame Inductees:

• Randy Mitton, inducted as a Builder/Leader – NHL Linesman 1972-2004
• Jeff Drumond, inducted as an Athlete – Hockey Player
• Stan Kern, inducted as an Athlete – Fastball Player
• Ed Stein, inducted as a Builder/Leader – Leduc Broomball Founder

RANDY MITTON:

Mitton was born on September 22, 1950 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He first started to officiate hockey games at the age of 12 on outdoor rinks around the city of Calgary AB. At 15, he decided to join the Calgary Officiating Association and within two seasons he was promoted to work the lines for the Alberta Junior Hockey League. He, like most of the officials back then, worked his way up from the Novice, Pee Wee, Bantam and Midget levels before reaching the Juniors and the numerous minor professional leagues. Then at the age of 18, Mitton traded his stick for good as he retired as a player and started attending Referee Schools hosted by the National Hockey League each summer in Banff, AB. In 1971, he reached the Western Hockey League (WHL) and his performance that season got him to be invited from the NHL to attend their rookie camp for officials, which was held in Toronto. Mitton was hired under a minor league linesman contract that summer of 1972 and worked primary the American Hockey League for the following two seasons grinding his teeth and perfecting his craft. The big day came on February 2nd 1974 when he worked his first NHL Regular Season Game in Vancouver when the New York Islanders were in town to play the Canucks. Then his career took another big step on April 10th 1979 when he worked his first NHL Playoff Game in Atlanta with the Toronto Maple Leafs visiting the defunct Atlanta Flames at the old Omni Coliseum. During his 32 years journey with the National Hockey League, Mitton was selected to work numerous important assignments including three All-Star Games (1985 Calgary, 1988 St. Louis & 2001 Denver), the 1988 Canada Cup, several International Games and had the ultimate privilege to be selected to work the 1994 Stanley Cup Final opposing the Vancouver Canucks and the New York Rangers. His 1,500th Regular Season Game was on January 30, 1995 in Edmonton (DET vs EDM) and he reached the impressive 2,000 NHL Regular Season Games milestone on December 26th, 2002 also in Edmonton (VAN vs EDM). He retired from the NHL on April 4th 2004 after working a game between the Los Angeles Kings and the San Jose Sharks. That night, he skated off the ice with an impressive 2,109 Regular Season Games worked putting him third all time for NHL linesman behind Ray Scapinello and Gerard Gauthier.

The accomplished linesman was hired back by the National Hockey League in 2009 as an NHL Video Replay Official for the Edmonton Oilers local games, a position he held until the end of the 2014-15 season. Since retired from working on the ice, Randy got involved in his community making a positive impact on the hockey and officiating program making the game we love so much, better for the local youth. During these years he served on the organizing committees for the 2010 Alberta Cup and the 2012 Telus Cup, hold the position of Director of the Midget AAA and Bantam AAA programs.

Randy Mitton's honesty and good nature as well as his hard work are still to this day greatly missed by our group. His dependable effort that he gave every night, game in and game out made him a well respected member on this association and will be forever greatly missed. Randy has been a mentor and role model for many of his fellow officials and still current members. He has always been the consummate professional, fully dedicated to his National Hockey League career as a Linesman.

The NHLOA would like to congratulate Alumni linesman Randy Mitton for his induction into the Leduc Sports Hall of Fame this past weekend, an honor well deserved! Well-done Mitts!