Draft:Johnny Landry

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Johnny "J.J" Landry (born October 25, 2003) was a major junior professional ice hockey defenceman for the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League. Landry was considered one of the greatest prospects of the twenty-first century in Canada and was the franchise player of the Calgary Hitmen from 2017 to 2021. Landry captained the Hitmen to their first championship in the 21st century during the 2019 WHL playoffs[1] Landry's scoring records of 71 goals in a single season, 24 playoff goals, and 48 points remain unbeaten to this day.

Landry played for the Canadian World Juniors National Team for three years. Johnny Landry was a member of the 2018 Team Canada World Juniors where five hockey players were charged criminally with sexual assault[2]. During the World Juniors, Landry was most known for his two-goal performance against the United States in the gold-medal game, scoring two goals in one minute and four seconds, swiping away a last-minute Finland shot on the goal line, as well as his five-goal performance against Russia in 2019.[3]

Playing Career

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Landry began playing junior hockey for the Airdrie Thunder of the Heritage Junior Hockey League. Moving forward, Landry played at the Junior A level with the Calgary Canucks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, who signed him in 2016 with a mandatory two-year contract extension.[4] Landry played two years with the team, winning one championship, before a blockbuster signing in the summer of 2018 led Landry to play for the Calgary Hitmen. This signing would make him the youngest player to play in the Western Hockey League in its almost 60-year history. In his first game, Landry scored three goals and overnight became a sensation in the City of Calgary. In his first season, he scored 139 points and led Calgary to its first postseason appearance in 21 years, losing in the second round to Seattle.[5]

In the 2018-2019 season, often remembered by Calgary Hitmen fans as the greatest season of hockey in the team's history and sometimes coined by Calgary Hitmen fans as "Landry's Landmark," Landry scored 71 goals and 123 points in 68 games, the first hockey player to score more than 50 in the twenty-first century at the junior level. Landry played all 24 games of the playoffs for Calgary and was a leading factor in the team's victories over Lethbridge[6] in the first round, Edmonton in the second[7], the third against Seattle, and the final against Saskatoon.[8] On May 26th, 2019, Landry scored the game-winning goal in triple overtime, winning Calgary the championship.

Landry missed a majority of the games in the 2020-21 WHL season as he suffered injuries with his PCL[9][circular reference]. He played all 14 games of the playoffs despite missing more than half of the regular season games. Calgary was eliminated in seven against Vancouver. In February 2021, Landry announced in front of a sold-out crowd against the Seattle Thunderbirds that he would retire from the sport of hockey; the 2021 WHL season was Johnny Landry's last. In June 2021, the Calgary Hitmen completed a trade to send the Captain to Medicine Hat in exchange for three first-round draft picks and five players. Landry never played one game for Medicine Hat, and his refusal to play for the team, although rooted in injury concerns, resulted in confirmed death threats from Medicine Hat fans after the Tigers announced they granted Landry exceptional status just hours after the trade. In 2022, the WHL completed a five-month-long investigation into the case of Johnny Landry, and it resulted in the Calgary Hitmen being fined $50,000 for negligence, fraud, and player endangerment, for maliciously submitting false positives on several physical assessments conducted on Johnny Landry before his trade to Medicine Hat.

Landry retired from professional hockey in 2021, reportedly rejecting a scholarship to play for the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds[10] and the University of Calgary Dinos[11]. In 2022 onwards, Landry coached for the Calgary Fire Program. Currently, Johnny Landry serves as the 14th Commissioner of the Alberta Hockey League, being appointed in February 2025.[12] He has previously served as the President of Player Development, Deputy Commissioner, and General Manager of the Calgary Fire hockey program[13]

Career statistics

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Regular season and playoffs

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Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2018-19 Calgary Hitmen WHL 68 71 52 123 14 24 21 23 44 2
2019-20 Calgary Hitmen WHL 64 67 30 97 18 9 12 14 26 0
2020-21 Calgary Hitmen WHL 21 21 64 85 14 14 8 6 14 4
2021-22 Medicine Hat Tigers WHL 0 0 0 0 0 — — — — —
2017–18 Team Canada IIHF 12 16 13 29 6 — — — — —
2018-19 Team Canada IIHF 12 12 14 26 0 — — — — —
2020–21 Team Canada IIHF 12 19 6 25 20 0 0 0 0 0
2016-17 Calgary Canucks AJHL 58 92 86 178 6 24 38 29 67 5
2017-2018 Calgary Hitmen WHL 36 48 91 139 2 22 12 34 48 5

References

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  1. ^ "2019 WHL Playoff Preview". 22 March 2019.
  2. ^ https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/why-5-former-canadian-world-junior-hockey-players-face-criminal-charges. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ^ "Goaltending, power play still clicking for Canada entering medal round".
  4. ^ https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/1865/calgary-canucks/transfers. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ^ https://chl.ca/whl-thunderbirds/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ^ https://chl.ca/whl-hurricanes/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ^ https://chl.ca/whl-oilkings/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ^ https://chl.ca/whl-blades/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posterior_cruciate_ligament. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ^ "Men's Hockey".
  11. ^ https://godinos.com/sports/mens-ice-hockey. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ^ https://www.aehl.ca/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. ^ "Calgary Fire – Girls Hockey Calgary".