Johnathan James Aitken (born May 24, 1978) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the latter a reference to ...

who played in the

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 ...

(NHL) with the

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

and the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...

Playing career

Aitken was drafted 8th overall in the

1996 NHL Entry Draft The 1996 NHL Entry Draft was the 34th NHL Entry Draft. It was held at the Kiel Center in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 22, 1996. The last active player in the NHL from this draft class was Zdeno Chára, who retired after the 2021–22 season. ...

by the

. He played in three games over the course of his two-year entry-level contract. For the 2000–01 season he went to the Czech Republic to play for

HC Sparta Praha Hockey Club Sparta Praha, commonly known as HC Sparta Prague, is a Prague-based Czech ice hockey team playing in the Czech Extraliga. The club has won four Czech championships (most recently in 2007) and four Czechoslovak championships, as w ...

of the

Czech Extraliga The Czech Extraliga ( cs, Extraliga ledního hokeje, ELH) is the highest-level ice hockey league in the Czech Republic. It was created by the 1993 split of the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League following the breakup of Czechoslovakia. The le ...

. He returned to North America after only a year, and made it back to the NHL during the 2003–04 season with the

, playing 41 games, scoring just one assist. He moved to the Austrian Hockey League for Klagenfurt AC for the 2006–07 season before retiring from professional hockey.

Career statistics

Awards and honours

References

*2005

NHL Official Guide & Record Book The ''NHL Official Guide & Record Book'' was the complete statistical record of the National Hockey League, published annually by the league until the league ended its production after the publication of the book following the 2017-18 season. An a ...

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aitken, Johnathan 1978 births Boston Bruins draft picks Boston Bruins players Brandon Wheat Kings players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Austria Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the Czech Republic Canadian ice hockey defencemen Chicago Blackhawks players EC KAC players Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL) players HC Sparta Praha players Ice hockey people from Alberta Jackson Bandits players Living people Manitoba Moose players Medicine Hat Tigers players National Hockey League first-round draft picks Norfolk Admirals players Providence Bruins players Sportspeople from Edmonton