Steve Barton

Born in Vankleek Hill, Ontario, Barton began officiating when he was 19 years old. At that time, he was also part of the inaugural edition of the Vankleek Hill Cougars Junior C hockey team. They went on to win the league championship that year. A good friend of his who was refereeing back then, Dave Legger, suggested to Barton that he should get involved in officiating.

Barton left his hometown and moved to Guelph, Ontario later that year, to attend the University of Guelph where he later graduated with a degree in Political Science. He started officiating some minor hockey in Guelph and moved on to line some junior games later in the year. Barton attribute his decision to be a linesman rather than becoming a referee to the fact that he got involved into officiating relatively late, too green to referee at the higher levels making lining the logical step.

From that moment, his career took off, where his journey had him working the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) before moving to the USA to work several minor professional hockey leagues including the ECHL, IHL, UHL and the AHL.

In the summer of 2000 at the age of 28, the National Hockey League offered him a minor league contract (40-40) as a linesman splitting his duties between the AHL and the NHL. Barton worked his first NHL Regular Season game in New Jersey on November 1st, 2000 when the Philadelphia Flyers were in town to play the Devils.

His first playoff game came on April 7th, 2007 when the Pittsburgh Penguins visited the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place. Barton worked the 2015 NHL Stadium Series game between the Los Angeles Kings and the San Jose Sharks played at the Santa Clara, California Levi’s Stadium on February 21st 2015. Teammates that night were referees Dan O’Halloran and Gord Dwyer while linesman David Brisebois completed the crew on the lines. He also worked the 2016 NHL Winter Classic between the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts on January 1, 2016 with referees Wes McCauley, Kevin Pollock and linesman David Brisebois.

Well respected by his peers, he has been voted to serve on the NHLOA Executive since 2009.