Jody Shelley (born February 7, 1976) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger. He is a current broadcaster as a studio analyst and color commentator with FanDuel Sports Network Ohio and Monday Night Hockey. During his National Hockey League (NHL) career he played for the Columbus Blue Jackets, San Jose Sharks, New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers.

Jody Shelley
Shelley with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2011
Born (1976-02-07) February 7, 1976 (age 48)
Thompson, Manitoba, Canada
Height 6 ft 4 in (193 cm)
Weight 230 lb (104 kg; 16 st 6 lb)
Position Left wing
Shot Left
Played for Columbus Blue Jackets
San Jose Sharks
New York Rangers
Philadelphia Flyers
NHL draft Undrafted
Playing career 1998–2013

He was known as an enforcer and had the most regular season major penalties for fighting since he joined the league; when he retired – on August 9, 2013 – he had 173. Shelley rejoined the Columbus Blue Jackets in August 2013 when he was named a broadcast associate and team ambassador.

Early life

edit

Born in Thompson, Manitoba, Shelley moved to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia when he was 12 for his father to work at a tin mine operated by Rio Algom in East Kemptville.[1] He attended Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial High School, graduating in 1994. He was involved in a number of competitive sports in his high school years, including hockey, swimming, and soccer, as well as a brief stint on the volleyball team.

Playing career

edit

Shelley began playing hockey in the Yarmouth County Minor Hockey Association until his midget year. He moved away from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia when he was 18 to play for the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Shelley then played 19 games for Dalhousie University before being signed by the Saint John Flames in the AHL to make his pro debut. Jody Shelley was signed as a free agent by the Calgary Flames on September 1, 1998, but never played for them. He played until 2000 with Saint John.

Almost 2 years later, on August 17, 2000, he was signed as a free agent by the Columbus Blue Jackets and played one game for them in the 2000–01 season. During that one game, he had ten minutes in penalties. After that, he played fairly regularly as the Blue Jackets' enforcer averaging over 200 minutes in penalties a season. He fought Bob Probert in each of the three periods in a 2–1 Blue Jackets loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center on January 10, 2002.[2] The three fights by the same two adversaries in a single NHL match would next be achieved fourteen years later when Evander Kane and Alex Petrovic did it on February 9, 2016.[3] During the 2003–04 NHL season, he got into a career-high 30 fights. He played five-and-a-half seasons for the Blue Jackets.

 
Shelley during warmups with the San Jose Sharks in 2008.

On January 29, 2008, he was traded to the San Jose Sharks for a sixth-round draft pick in 2009 and he re-signed with the Sharks in the off-season. In a 2008 regular season match against the Dallas Stars, Sean Avery hit Brad Lukowich and after the incident, Shelley and Avery began to throw water and Gatorade at each other while jawing at each other.[4]

Two years after joining San Jose, on February 12, 2010, Shelley was traded by the Sharks to the Rangers for a conditional sixth-round draft pick.

On July 1, 2010, Shelley signed a three-year contract with the Philadelphia Flyers.[5]

On September 20, 2011, Shelley was suspended for the remainder of the preseason and 5 regular season games for boarding Darryl Boyce.[6]

On August 9, 2013, with no NHL contract offers following the expiration of his deal with the Flyers, he announced his retirement from professional hockey and joined the team he started his NHL career with (the Blue Jackets) on a front office job.

International play

edit

During the 2004–2005 NHL Lockout, Shelley played for the JYP in the Finnish SM-Liiga. He played 11 games in the regular season with no goals, one assist and 20 penalty minutes. During the playoffs he played 3 games with no points and 25 penalty minutes.

Broadcasting career

edit

In May 2014, he became the Blue Jackets television color analyst alongside Jeff Rimer.[7]

Over his career, he has also served as an analyst for NHL on NBC, NHL Network (American TV channel) and NHL on TNT.

In April 2024, Canadian NHL broadcast rightsholder Rogers Communications announced that it had struck a deal to shift a portion of its rights – specifically the Monday night games played in Canada – from its own NHL on Sportsnet broadcast to Amazon Prime Video for the 2024–25 and 2025–26 regular seasons.[8] In September, it was announced that Shelley would alternate with Shane Hnidy (both of whom have non-Prime NHL broadcast gigs) to provide colour commentary on Prime Monday Night Hockey,[9] which launched with a game in Montreal on October 14, 2024.[10] It was confirmed that Shelley would also continue with the Blue Jackets broadcasts on FanDuel Sports Network Ohio, alongside new (for 2024–25) play-by-play announcer Steve Mears.[11]

Personal life

edit

In addition to Shelley's duties on Blue Jackets broadcasts, he represents the club as a team ambassador where he spearheads the organization of the Blue Jackets Player Alumni Association.[12]

Shelley hosts the Jody Shelley Golf Fore Health in his hometown of Yarmouth every summer which raises money for hospital equipment. As of June 2018, the event has raised over $480,000 in support of Yarmouth Regional Hospital.[13][14]

The Town of Yarmouth declared July 13, 2013, as Jody Shelley Day, and honoured Shelley by renaming Cottage Street as Jody Shelley Drive, and also renumbering the Mariners Centre, the local winter sports facility, as 45 Jody Shelley Drive, after his jersey number.[15]

Records

edit

Career statistics

edit

Bold indicates led league

Regular season and playoffs

edit
Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1994–95 Halifax Mooseheads QMJHL 72 10 12 22 194 7 0 1 1 12
1995–96 Halifax Mooseheads QMJHL 50 13 19 32 319 6 0 2 2 36
1996–97 Halifax Mooseheads QMJHL 59 25 19 44 420 17 6 6 12 125
1997–98 Dalhousie University AUAA 19 6 11 17 145
1997–98 Saint John Flames AHL 18 1 1 2 50
1998–99 Johnstown Chiefs ECHL 51 12 17 29 325
1998–99 Saint John Flames AHL 8 0 0 0 46
1999–00 Saint John Flames AHL 22 1 4 5 93 3 0 0 0 2
1999–00 Johnstown Chiefs ECHL 36 9 17 26 256
2000–01 Syracuse Crunch AHL 69 1 7 8 357 5 0 0 0 21
2000–01 Columbus Blue Jackets NHL 1 0 0 0 10
2001–02 Columbus Blue Jackets NHL 52 3 3 6 206
2001–02 Syracuse Crunch AHL 22 3 5 8 165
2002–03 Columbus Blue Jackets NHL 68 1 4 5 249
2003–04 Columbus Blue Jackets NHL 76 3 3 6 228
2004–05 JYP FIN 11 0 1 1 20 3 0 0 0 25
2005–06 Columbus Blue Jackets NHL 80 3 7 10 163
2006–07 Columbus Blue Jackets NHL 72 1 1 2 125
2007–08 Columbus Blue Jackets NHL 31 0 0 0 44
2007–08 San Jose Sharks NHL 31 1 6 7 91 6 0 0 0 2
2008–09 San Jose Sharks NHL 70 2 2 4 116 1 0 0 0 0
2009–10 San Jose Sharks NHL 36 0 3 3 78
2009–10 New York Rangers NHL 21 2 4 6 37
2010–11 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 58 2 2 4 127 2 0 0 0 2
2011–12 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 30 0 1 1 64
2012–13 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 1 0 0 0 0
NHL totals 627 18 36 54 1538 9 0 0 0 4

References

edit
  1. ^ Shelley: NHLer still considers Yarmouth home
  2. ^ Columbus Blue Jackets at Chicago Blackhawks, United Center, Thursday, January 10, 2002 (box score) – nhl.com.
  3. ^ Vogl, John. "Videos: Sabres' Kane wins three straight fights against Florida's Petrovic," The Buffalo News, Wednesday, February 10, 2016. Archived February 11, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Sean Avery vs Jody Shelley: The Gatorade Incident - YouTube
  5. ^ "Shelley, Flyers agree on three-year contract". Philadelphia Flyers. 2010-07-01. Archived from the original on 2012-02-24. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
  6. ^ "NHL suspends Shelley for remainder of preseason, five regular-season games". NHL. 2011-09-22. Archived from the original on 2011-09-24. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
  7. ^ "Philadelphia Flyers vs. Columbus Blue Jackets". NHL Hockey. 2010-10-25. 20:09 minutes in. Fox Sports Ohio.
  8. ^ "Rogers announces deal to move Monday night NHL games to streaming". CBC Sports. The Canadian Press. 2024-04-23. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
  9. ^ Tovell, Jonathan (2024-09-23). "Prime Video Unveils On-Air Talent For NHL Broadcasts, Trailer for Star-Studded Docuseries". The Hockey News. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
  10. ^ Strong, Gregory (2024-10-11). "Prime Monday Night Hockey job a homecoming for Canadian broadcaster Adnan Virk". The Canadian Press. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
  11. ^ Hart, Nathan (2024-10-24). "Blue Jackets color analyst Jody Shelley chosen as analyst for Prime Monday Night Hockey". The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
  12. ^ "Premium Access | BlueJackets Xtra". Archived from the original on 2014-09-24. Retrieved 2014-10-14.
  13. ^ "Yarmouth Hospital Foundation - Jody Shelley Golf Fore Health". yarmouthhospitalfoundation.ca. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012.
  14. ^ "Yarmouth Hospital Foundation | Yarmouth, NS | Signature Events | Jody Shelley Golf Fore Health". Archived from the original on 2019-04-29. Retrieved 2019-06-30.
  15. ^ "Saltwire | Nova Scotia".
edit