Kevin Hodson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kevin Hodson (born May 27, 1972 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) is a retired professional ice hockey goaltender. Hodson played professionally in the NHL and AHL before ending his playing career in the Finnish SM-liiga in 2003-04.

1 Career in The Juniors
2 Professional career
3 Career in Europe
4 Awards
5 References

[edit] Career in The Juniors

Hodson joined the OHL's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds during the 1990-91 season and remained with them until the 1992-93 season. Hodson backstopped the Greyhounds to their first ever Memorial Cup championship during the 1992-93 season, where Hodson was also selected as the top goaltender of the Memorial Cup tournament. Even with his strong OHL and Memorial Cup showing, Hodson went undrafted.

[edit] Professional career

[edit] Chicago

Hodson turned pro in 1992 after signing with the Chicago Blackhawks and spent the 1992-93 season with both his Junior Team and the IHL's Indianapolis Ice, where he posted a 5-9 record.

[edit] Detroit

After that season was finished, Hodson signed with the Detroit Red Wings and was sent to their AHL affiliate team, the Adirondack Red Wings, for 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons, as Detroit had enough goaltending depth with Chris Osgood, Mike Vernon, Bob Essensa, Tim Cheveldae, Vincent Riendeau, and Peter Ing alternating goaltending duties at some point during those seasons. Hodson made his NHL debut with the Detroit Red Wings during the 1995-96 Season, where he shut out the Blackhawks 3-0. Hodson would go on to post a 2-0-0 record for that year.

During the 1996-97 Season in which the Red Wings would eventually win the Stanley Cup, Hodson remained as the Red Wings' Number 3 Goalie and as such, only saw 6 games that seasons, posting a 2-2-1 record.

During the off-season, Vernon was traded to the San Jose Sharks, a move that put Hodson as the backup goaltender for the 1997-98 Season. As a result, Hodson put up a 9-3-3 record in 21 regular season games and backed up Osgood as the Red Wings won another Stanley Cup.

For the 1998-99 Season, Norm Maracle challenged Hodson for the backup goaltender role in the Detroit Red Wings organization. Given Maracle's level of play, and the 0-2 record that Hodson posted in 4 games during that season, Hodson was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning in a deal that brought Bill Ranford and Wendel Clark to the Red Wings on 23 March 1999.

[edit] Tampa Bay

Hodson wasted no time in Tampa Bay, posting a 2-1-1 record in the five games he played with them before suffering a groin injury which made him miss the remainder of the season.

The 1999-2000 Season found Hodson serving as a backup to Dan Cloutier, who used to back Hodson up when they played together with Sault Ste. Marie in the OHL. Hodson didn't live up to team expectations that season, posting a 2-7-4 record in 24 contests. After spending some time with Tampa Bay's minor league affiliate, the Detroit Vipers, Hodson was eventually dealt to the Montreal Canadiens for a 7th Round Draft Pick for the 2000 Draft on 2 June 2000.

Hodson remained inactive until the 2002-03 Season, where he was resigned by Tampa Bay to be back up goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin. However, after posting a 0-3-1 record in seven games and having questionable conditioning habits, Tampa Bay acquired John Grahame from the Boston Bruins on 13 January 2003 to perform the backup duties Tampa Bay expected Hodson to carry out.

On 16 January 2003, Kevin Hodson announced his retirement from professional hockey.

[edit] Career in Europe

On 6 November 2003, Hodson was signed as a free agent by Jokerit of the Finnish SM-liiga, where he posted a 1-1-1 record and left the team before the regular season was over.