Professional Athlete
Kerry Fraser

For outstanding performance at the professional level.  Must have achieved professional status and maintained that level for three (3) years or three (3) seasons and be retired from his/her professional career for a minimum of three (3) years.

 

Kerry joined the NHL ranks as a full-time referee in the 1980 season and enjoyed a 30 year career directly in the NHL rubbing shoulders with some of the greatest players the game has ever known. Kerry retired at the end of the 2009-2010 season, working his final game between the NY Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday, April 11, 2010. The winner of that game determined which of those two teams would secure the final playoff spot and a fitting way in which to end such as illustrious officiating career. The Philadelphia Flyers won in shoot-out fashion and marched to the Stanley Cup Final while losing to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games. Kerry, on the other hand retired after the game with a record for most games as a referee in the history of the NHL (1,904 regular season and 261 Stanley Cup Playoff games totalling 2,165 NHL games).
 

Kerry Fraser was selected to referee in 12 different Stanley Cup Finals (his first in 1985, as the youngest referee ever); the 1996 World Cup of Hockey in both Europe and gold medal round in North America; the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan; 2 NHL All-Star games; and the 2010 Winter Classic on New Year’s Day in Boston’s historic Fenway Park.  Kerry was overwhelmingly selected as the best referee in the NHL through independent polls of NHL players conducted annually by ESPN and the Toronto Sun, including in his final season.  Referee magazine selected Kerry as one of the top 10 officials of the century in any sport and he is arguably the most respected NHL referee ever to blow a whistle.