Long-time National Hockey League linesperson Brad Kovachik is hanging up his whistle after the final buzzer sounds at Senators vs. Panthers tonight in Florida.

Kovachik will skate his final game alongside fellow liney Libor Suchanek and referees Gord Dwyer and Brian Pochmara.  

“It’s starting to sink in now,” Kovachik told the Woodstock Sentinel-Review earlier this year. “You go to different rinks and realize it’s the last time I’ll step into it. You walk into an arena and remember important games that stand out in your mind, and most are good memories.”The Woodstock, Ontario, native made his NHL debut on October 10, 1996, when he took the ice in Philadelphia for a game between the Flyers and the Los Angeles Kings. Kovachik’s debut crew was liney Ron Asselstine and referee – and current NHL Director of Officiating – Stephen Walkom.  If you’re scoring at home, that was a 5-4 overtime win for the Flyers, with the game-winning goal scored by Rod Brind’Amour.

 

 

Kovachik, 54, went on to work 29 seasons in the NHL, handling 1,971 regular season games – 10th most all-time and most among active officials – and 200 playoff matches, including five trips to the Stanley Cup Final (2014, 2017, 2020, 2022, 2023).  He also suited up for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and the 2004 World Cup of Hockey. 

From the NHLOA:

Kovachik was born and raised in Woodstock, Ontario, a city located about an hour west of Toronto. The former centerman, played his youth hockey there dreaming just like any other Canadian kids of making the NHL as a player. He would go on and play until the junior levels dressing up for the Woodstock Navy Vets in the Provincial Junior Hockey League of the Ontario Hockey Association in his final three seasons (1989 to 1992). 

His officiating journey started at the early age of 12, working local games at the old Woodstock Perry Street Arena on the weekends to earn a few bucks. Nine years later, Kovachik was hired by the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) as a linesman. He worked the OHL for a total of three seasons and was selected to work the prestigious Memorial Cup tournament hosted in Peterborough, Ontario in his last season (1995-96). His on-ice performance during the tournament earned him the ultimate assignment of working the championship game between the host team, the Peterborough Petes and the Granby Prédateurs. 

The National Hockey League (NHL) offered him a minor league linesman contract that summer. He made his NHL debut in Philadelphia on October 10th, 1996 when the Los Angeles Kings were in town to play the Flyers. His teammates that night were referee Stephen Walkom and linesman Ron Asseltine. 

It only took him one season as a minor league linesman under contract before being promoted to a full time NHL linesman status in the summer of 1997.

Kovachik may be stepping away from the NHL, but he’s not leaving the game.  The veteran official has joined the Greater Ontario Hockey League as Referee-in-Chief.

“I’m very excited to join the GOHL,” Kovachik told the Penticton Herald. “I think they’ve really committed themselves to becoming the elite junior league. I’m looking forward to joining them and helping the officials any way I can. The last few years, I’ve seen the commitment Greg has had with this league. He’s grown it and has great ideas.”

Congratulations to linesperson Brad Kovachik on an amazing career and all the best to him in retirement.