Andy Van Hellemond (born February 16, 1948) is a Canadian former

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

and a member of the

Hockey Hall of Fame , logo = Hockey Hall of Fame Logo.svg , logo_upright = 0.5 , image = Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto.jpg , caption = The Hall's present location on Yonge Street since 1992 , map_type = , former_name = , established = 1943 , location = 30 Y ...

since 1999. He is also a former municipal politician, serving on city council for the City of

Guelph, Ontario Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Welli ...

from 2010 to 2018.

Officiating career

Van Hellemond's NHL officiating career began in 1969 and included 19

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

Finals. In 1984, he became the first NHL on-ice official to wear a

helmet A helmet is a form of protective gear worn to protect the head. More specifically, a helmet complements the skull in protecting the human brain. Ceremonial or symbolic helmets (e.g., a policeman's helmet in the United Kingdom) without protect ...

; four years later, the NHL later made helmets mandatory for all on-ice officials (however, any official who was not wearing a helmet at the time of the ruling could continue to go helmetless if they so desired). Subsequently, several officials followed his lead, and beginning with the 2006–07 NHL season, all NHL on-ice officials were compelled to wear helmets. He also officiated 1,557 regular season games and 227 playoff games. Van Hellemond has been the NHL's #1 referee 14 consecutive times. He also officiated in two All-Star games, the 1979 Challenge Cup, and

Rendez-vous '87 Rendez-vous '87 was a two-game international ice hockey series of games between the Soviet Union national ice hockey team and a team of All-Stars from the National Hockey League, held in Quebec City. It replaced the NHL's All-Star festivities ...

. From the 1977–78 to 1993–94 seasons, NHL officials' jerseys displayed their last names on the back. Due to its length, Van Hellemond's name was displayed in two lines. From the

1994–95 NHL season The 1994–95 NHL season was the 78th regular season of the National Hockey League. The teams played a shortened season, due to a lockout of the players by the owners. In addition, the NHL All-Star Game, which had been scheduled to take place Ja ...

until his retirement in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, Van Hellemond wore uniform number 25, which was later worn by

Marc Joannette Marc Joannette (born November 3, 1968) is a National Hockey League referee, who wears uniform number 25. As of the end of the 2007–08 NHL season, he has officiated 470 regular season and 28 playoff games. His first game was on October 1, 1999. He ...

. After retiring as on-ice official, Van Hellemond held a management position with the

East Coast Hockey League The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

until being hired by the NHL in 2000 to replace

Bryan Lewis Bryan Lewis (born September 10, 1942) is a Canadian municipal politician and a former referee and Director of Officiating for the National Hockey League. Lewis was born in Alliston, Ontario. His first NHL experience was in the 1967-68 NHL se ...

as Director of Officiating. Van Hellemond remained director of officiating until July 2004, when he was asked by

Colin Campbell Colin may refer to: * Colin (given name) * Colin (surname) * ''Colin'' (film), a 2008 Cannes film festival zombie movie * Colin (horse) (1905–1932), thoroughbred racehorse * Colin (humpback whale), a humpback whale calf abandoned north of Sydney, ...

to resign from the position because of concern over the former's personal gambling debts. In July 2011, Van Hellemond served the creators of the comic strip ''

Adam@home ''Adam@home'' (previously titled ''Adam'') is an American syndicated gag-a-day comic strip created by Brian Basset and currently drawn by Rob Harrell. Started in 1984, it follows the life of Adam Newman, a stay-at-home dad, as he juggles hi ...

'' with a notice of intention to sue for

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

over a comic which used the word "evil" in referring to Van Hellemond as "the worst and most evil ref ever." Newspapers carrying the strip, including the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'' and ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', were also served.

Political career

Van Hellemond was a candidate for City Councillor during the 2010 municipal election in the city of

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. He was elected to Ward Two, winning with 29.86% of the vote over both incumbents. In 2014, Van Hellemond was elected for a second term as City Councillor for Ward 2, in the Guelph municipal election. Van Hellemond was not a candidate for City Council in the 2018 Elections.

Awards and achievements

MJHL The Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) is a Junior 'A' ice hockey league operating in the Canadian province of Manitoba and one of nine member leagues of the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). The MJHL consists of thirteen teams all based ...

First All-Star Team (1968) *Selected as Manitoba's Referee of the Century *Inducted into the

in 1999 *"Honoured Member" of the

Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame The Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum is a hall of fame and museum for ice hockey in Manitoba, located on the main level of the Canada Life Centre in downtown Winnipeg. It was established in 1985, when the first honoured members were named an ...

References

External links

Van Hellemond becomes director of officiatingAndy Van Hellemond's biography
a
Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Hellemond, Andy 1948 births Canadian ice hockey officials Guelph city councillors Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey people from Manitoba Living people National Hockey League officials Politicians from Winnipeg St. James Braves players St. James Canadians players Sportspeople from Winnipeg Canadian sportsperson-politicians