Devon Gale continues his pursuit of dropping pucks in the National Hockey League in Southwestern Ontario.
The first-year Ontario Hockey League official was on the ice for his first game on Oct. 6 in Sarnia as the Sting welcomed the Soo Greyhounds.
"It was just another game really,” Gale noted. “But definitely cool wearing that different jersey, having a number on my back and wearing [the OHL] patch too. One thing I noticed in the [games that I did, this] definitely doesn't compare to [a] Friday night at the [Fort William] Gardens for a [Lakehead Thunderwolves] game.”
Gale first donned the official’s uniform in 2016 while he was still playing as a goaltender in the Thunder Bay Minor Hockey Association.
Gale added that as soon as he drops the puck for the first time in a game, he’s ready to go.
“What we do is one [linesman] will drop the puck on one side of the red line, and you [stay on that side of the ice] for half the game and then switch [after that]. So it took a while [in the first game] until I had that first face off; Once I did it calmed me down [for the rest of the game].”
Gale finished his playing career in 2019-20 and focused his attention on learning how to officiate.
He worked several Ontario University Athletics games and match-ups in the Superior International Junior Hockey League.
He says it’s been a long process to be selected into the major junior hockey ranks.
“I first got noticed at a provincial camp in St. Mary's [last October] by one of the officiating managers from the OHL. He invited me to go to their prospect combine. So, I went to that, and then from there I was [picked to go to] training camp and [managed to work] two preseason games as a tryout. I got an email saying that [I would] be on staff for the season, two days before they would have announced it.”
Gale is living in Chatham, which is roughly an hour from Windsor, going to school to be a power line technician at Saint Clair College.
He is aware that there are only 40 jobs for linesmen in the NHL, so if that goal doesn’t pan out, he would like to come back to Thunder Bay and work for Tbaytel.
Gale feels that working Thunderwolves games in the Gardens gave him a leg up on other officials.
“The speed, intensity — from what I have seen, fans in OHL markets treat their teams the same as Thunder Bay fans who attend Thunderwolves games.”
Devon Gale continues to follow in the footsteps of his uncle Doug, who worked games in the United States Hockey League as well as the former Colonial Hockey League when the league featured the Thunder Bay Senators.
Doug also had the opportunity to work on the national stage at the 2003 Canada Games in Bathurst and Campbellton, N.B.
Devon also attended the NHL Officiating Combine in Buffalo back in August, which marked the first time that a Thunder Bay official was invited to the camp since the league instituted the Combine in 2014.
Devon gives full credit to a lot of mentors to getting him where he is today, including former Hockey Northwestern Ontario officiating director Bryan Graham, off-ice official Gary Nistico, and on-ice official Lance Dysievick.
