Referee Jean Hebert will work the 900th regular-season game of his NHL career tonight, Thursday, October 29, when the Winnipeg Jets visit the Tampa Bay Lightning. He’ll take the ice alongside ref Brandon Blandina, with Tommy Hughes and Libor Suchanek on the lines.
Hebert, 46, reaches the mark in his 17th NHL season. The Bouctouche, New Brunswick, native worked game No. 899 on Tuesday night in Raleigh, continuing a climb that has taken him to 129 Stanley Cup Playoff games and four Stanley Cup Finals.
A former corrections officer, Hebert pivoted to keeping order on the ice, working his way up through just about every rung of the development ladder. He started in the QMJHL as a linesman in 2004 before switching to referee in 2006. He went on to work the President’s Cup Final – including a Game 7 between Drummondville and Shawinigan – and three Memorial Cup tournaments.
Hebert began in the ECHL part-time in 2007-08, joining the AHL the following season. The ECHL bumped him to full-time in 2009-10, assigning him to Games 1 and 4 of the 2010 Kelly Cup Final. The NHL hired him in the summer of 2010, setting him up for double-duty across the AHL and NHL.
He made his debut the following spring, and his debut could hardly have come with a better wingman: a veteran official wrapping up a hall-of-fame career. Hebert’s first NHL game was Devils vs. Islanders on March 30, 2011, skating alongside referee Bill McCreary – who was working his next-to-last NHL game before retiring after a 29-year career – with linesmen Brian Murphy and Derek Amell.
“It was a sense of accomplishment skating in a NHL game, but was also a great honor to be working on the same team as Billy McCreary, Brian Murphy and Derek Amell,” Hebert said at the time. “Those guys represent true professionalism.”
Hebert picked up plenty of playoff action in the American Hockey League, working three straight AHL Calder Cup Finals (2011, 2012, 2013) before making his NHL playoff debut on April 16, 2015.
The big assignments kept coming: Stanley Cup Finals in 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026. This past June, he worked Games 2, 4 and 6 of the Vegas-Carolina Final, advancing from the Conference Finals paired with Garrett Rank. He’s also suited up for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off, the 2019 Global Series game in Prague, the 2025 Winter Classic at Wrigley Field, and the 2019 Stadium Series in Philadelphia.
In 2022, Hebert returned to Bouctouche for Hockeyville, where he helped run an officiating clinic in nearby Richibucto. His local golf tournament there has helped raise more than $100,000 for local minor hockey and ringette, providing equipment and subsidizing player costs.
“Once you’re at the top, sometimes you have tough nights where you have tough games, you get cut from a team or you don’t get the assignment you’re looking for,” Hebert said. “People from your community are there for you all the time. They just want to see how you’re doing. They’re not talking about all those little details. They’re all proud of you. Then you realize you’re probably in it sometimes for more than just yourself, but for a community. Through thick and thin, they’re always there to support you. Where your roots are and your home is, it’s the most important thing in the world.”
Fifteen years after that debut in Newark, game No. 900 is next… and he’s got a whole community celebrating.
Congratulations to Jean on 900 games!
