Darren Gibbs

The native of Fort Mc Murray, Alberta grew up surrounded by the game of hockey. His uncle Barry Gibbs was drafted no.1 overall at the NHL amateur draft by the Boston Bruins the very same year he was born (1966) and later became an all-star defenseman in the NHL from 1967 to 1980. His dad, John Gibbs, was for a long time recognized as the best referee in Fort Mc Murray and was a major influence in Darren starting to officiate hockey games at the early age of 10. As a kid, Darren spent countless weekends at the old Townsite Arena playing hockey or officiating youth games with players that were his age and often older than him. Gibbs was always at the rink, when he wasn’t playing or officiating he would be there often watching his dad wearing the zebra jersey and learning the craft from him. As a player, Gibbs played until his junior years dressing for the Junior B Fort Mc Murray Blackhawks and later for the Voyageurs. As an official, he slowly worked his way up the different levels of hockey between the age of 16 to 22, working all levels of minor hockey around his hometown, skating in some senior hockey games as well before reaching the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). Working the AJHL also meant meeting new officials from all around the Alberta province as it now involved some travel along the way. A few years later, some of his new teammates and some influent officiating people talked him into moving down to Edmonton in order to be able to work higher levels of hockey. He moved to Edmonton in the summer of 1993, where he was immediately hired by the Western Hockey League (WHL) to work as a linesman. The relocation proved to be a great move for Gibbs as he was selected to work some WHL playoffs right away on his first year. His second season with the WHL was also a successful one as he was selected by the International Federation of Hockey (IIHF) to work the prestigious World Junior Championship that year (2015) in Red Deer, Alberta. To top it off at the end of his sophomore season, he also earned the ultimate honor of working the 1995 CHL Memorial Cup in Kamloops, BC. Darren spent a total of four seasons with the WHL, earning another international assignment by the IHHF in his final year (1997 World Hockey Championship in Helsinki, Finland). He received the phone call he had been waiting for in the summer of 1997 and was offered a minor league linesman contract by the National Hockey League. He was promoted to a full-time NHL linesman status the following summer at the age of 31. Gibbs was recognized in 2012 by his former community when he was Inducted in the Wood Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a hockey official.