Referee Jordan Samuels-Thomas has been promoted to a full-time National Hockey League official.
Samuels-Thomas, 35, made his league debut on April 14, 2022, working a game between the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks. He took he ice that night with referee Eric Furlatt and linesmen Ryan Galloway and Shandor Alphonso – making it the first ever National Hockey League game officiated by two black officials.
He’s gone on to work 86 regular season games in the National Hockey League, splitting time between the NHL and AHL. He was selected to officiate the AHL’s Calder Cup Finals in both 2024 and 2025.
As an AHL/NHL official, Samuels-Thomas wears #42 in tribute to baseball’s Jackie Robinson.
“When I played I was number 42 for a reason, and with the opportunity to wear this number it was easy,” Samuels-Thomas said. “Being able to wear Jackie’s number is always special, so I got to do it as a player and now as an official. I wish I could keep this number forever.”
Unfortunately, the NHL reserves numbers 41-49 for AHL/NHL officials. Samuels-Thomas moves to #37 for the upcoming season.
The Connecticut native never made it to the NHL as a player, but he came close. Then a power forward with the USHL’s Waterloo Blackhawks, Samuels-Thomas was drafted in the seventh round of the NHL Entry Draft (203rd overall) by the Atlanta Thrashers. After graduating from Quinnipiac University — posting 50 goals and 54 assists in 148 NCAA games — Samuels-Thomas signed an entry-level deal with the Buffalo Sabres. He played four seasons in the American Hockey League, suiting up for the Rochester Americans, Ontario Reign, and San Diego Gulls, scoring 28 goals and 28 assists while picking up 151 penalty minutes in 195 career AHL games.
The winger then headed overseas, skating in the top European leagues in Germany (DEL), Austria (EBEL), and the Czech Republic (Extraliga).
He returned to North America in 2019, joining the Worcester Railers of the ECHL for his final professional season. The journalism major even spent some time as a contributor to The Athletic before retiring as a player in 2020.
Back in the states, Samuels-Thomas focused his efforts on officiating, reaching out to current and former NHL officials to learn from their experiences.
“It seemed like this was a really good opportunity to continue being on the ice and continue chasing the NHL,” Samuels-Thomas said. “I was fortunate enough to play four years in the AHL, and that’s as high as I made it. The opportunity to pursue and kind of have that carrot or that goal of making the National Hockey League, I like the lifestyle and the work that needs to be done to ref in the NHL one day. That’s really my goal.”
“That’s been my mindset since I was 10 years old is make the NHL. I didn’t as a player, but if I continue working hard, I can have a good opportunity to do that as a referee.”
From the NHLOA:
After a full off-season of training with former NHL Referee Mike Leggo, Samuels-Thomas made his officiating debut in the fall of 2020 as a referee in the United States Hockey League — almost 11 years after he played in the league as an NHL prospect. Samuels-Thomas would work between the USHL and NAHL before getting the opportunity to work in the American Hockey League for the 2020-2021 season. Samuels-Thomas made his AHL officiating debut in a game between two of his former clubs – the San Diego Gulls and Ontario Reign.
In the summer of 2021, following a successful season in the AHL, Jordan received the call from the National Hockey League to serve as a contracted minor league referee, completing yet another ‘full circle’ moment of the young officials career as he attended his first NHL officials training camp in Buffalo, New York — the same city where he attended his first NHL training camp as a prospect seven years before.
Samuels-Thomas follows in the footsteps of Jay Sharrers, who became the NHL’s first black official in 1990 as a linesman, and later the league’s first black referee in 2001. Sharrers went on to work 137 games as a referee from 2001-2003 when the league was transitioning to the two-referee system before moving back to the lines until his retirement in 2016.
Congratulations to Jordan Samuels-Thomas on his promotion to full-time referee in the National Hockey League.
