PORT FRANKS, Ontario — To say Jamie Johnson has made an impact on Canadian hockey would be an understatement. The Port Franks native spent a majority of his minor hockey career in Thedford, later playing AAA hockey in Sarnia. At the age of 15, Johnson played two years of Junior B with the Stathroy Rockets prior to being drafted to the Ontario Hockey League (OHL).  He then spent one year with the Sarnia Sting before being traded to the Oshawa Generals, where he played for three seasons. He totaled 96 goals and 186 assists in a combined 262 games by the time he had finished his junior hockey career with the Sting and Generals.

Johnson went on to play professionally for 15 years after his junior career finished. He made his professional debut in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) with the Louisiana IceGators for the 2003-04 season, before moving onto the Augusta Lynx team for the next two years. After a strong performance in the ECHL during his first few years, Jamie stepped up and made his American Hockey League (AHL) debut with the Iowa Stars for the 2005-06 season. He went on to play for a number of AHL teams throughout the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, including the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (one season), Rochester Americans (one season) and Grand Rapids Griffins (two seasons).

His best season was arguably with the Rochester Americans in 2009-10, when he was a scoring leader with a whopping 27 goals and 44 assists in all 80 games played.

Johnson had a brief encounter in NHL in his career. While he signed with the Florida Panthers and Detroit Redwings in the late 2000’s, he did not play for the teams. In a past interview, Jamie cites his disappointment in the Panthers commenting, “Just seems they [Panthers] have no interest in me all year I mean I don’t think I should give them the time of day for another season.”

Johnson finally retired in 2017 after a 15-year long professional career. After retirement, the former player decided to get into coaching. He became an assistant coach for the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Ridgebacks of the Ontario University Athletics for the 2017-18 season.  He was hired as an offensive specialist for the team. After the hiring, Johnson was quoted saying, “It’s a great opportunity. I look forward to learning from the coaching staff that’s here now. I think they are all good [hockey] people so it’s going to be a lot of learning for me this year and moving forward.”

When asked what he would bring to the table as a hockey coach, Johnson commented, “[I will bring] Some fresh ideas. I was always an offensive player when I played so I would like to bring some of that to these guys and help them on the power play and maybe some offensive stuff.”

Most recently, Johnson joined the Okanagan Hockey Ontario (OHO) coaching staff as the assistant Coach. He coaches the U18 AAA Team by focusing on their offense. He seems to be making quite an impact on young players. According to Zechariah Thomas, a young OHO student athlete, Johnson is, “passionate, dedicated and skilled and encouraged [Zechariah] to dig deeper mentally and physically.”

Outside his hockey involvement, Jamie is the co-owner and director of skills for Scary Skate, a professional power skating program aimed at teaching junior hockey players essential skating and hockey skills. Jamie currently resides with his family in Grand Bend, a quick 15-minute drive from where he was born and brought up.

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