Jeff Norton
Jeffrey Thomas Norton ( born November 25, 1965 in Acton, Massachusetts ) is a retired American professional ice hockey player. During his career he played for the New York Islanders, San Jose Sharks, St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League. He is the older brother of Brad Norton, who is also a professional hockey player.
Career
Norton played with three years from 1984 to 1987 at the University of Michigan. During this time he had already been selected in the NHL Entry Draft in 1984 in the third round at 62nd position of the New York Islanders. Its excellent last year of college gave him, in addition to the nomination for the CCHA Second All-Star Team, an invitation for the U.S. national team, which should be prepared for the entire 1987/88 season of the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in Calgary. Norton managed eventually made it into the team squad and therefore took part in the Olympic ice hockey tournament.
After the games, the defender signed a contract with the New York Islanders in the NHL and ran in 15 games in the 1987/88 season for the club on. The Americans remained until the summer of 1993 in the Big Apple, where he missed a large part of the season 1991/92 because of a hip injury. After his journey through the NHL began. First he played from October 1993 to March 1995 with the San Jose Sharks, was then submitted to the St. Louis Blues, where he remained until January 1996. It was followed by a transfer business, which led him to the Edmonton Oilers. This gave him away in March 1997 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Also, there remained Norton only until January 1998 before he was transferred to the Florida Panthers. Already in November 1998, Norton returned to the Panthers back and moved back to San Jose, where he was already in the 1993 /94 and 1994/95 under contract. However, the Americans remained only until the end of the season 1999/ 00 on the California coast. As a free agent he signed in November 2000, initially a contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins, who sent in but already in March 2001 back to San Jose. There, Norton denied the rest of the season, and then signed again with the Florida Panthers for the 2000 /01 season. A knee injury suffered at the beginning of the season forced him to pause long what the Boston Bruins but has not allowed him held in March 2001 to commit for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs. After leaving the Bruins out of the playoffs Norton ended his 15-year NHL career.
Overall, Norton played for eight different NHL franchises and changed the course of his career ten times the team. Well-known players who were involved in transfer transactions with Norton, Craig Janney are, Dino Ciccarelli and Johan Hedberg. He had his best NHL season in the 1989/90 season when he was able to achieve 53 points for the Islanders in 60 games.