Seth Jones

Seth Jones (born Jared Seth Jones on October 3, 1994) is an American professional ice hockey defenseman. He is currently playing with the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League.

Seth was selected by the Predators in the 1st round (4th overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. He spent two years playing for the United States National Team Development Program before playing junior hockey.

Seth was originally drafted by the Everett Silvertips, but he chose not to play for them. Believing that Seth would choose to play college hockey, Everett traded his negotiation rights to Portland.

After the Winterhawks signed Seth, they traded four players to the Silvertips to officially complete the trade.

Seth has represented the United States several times internationally, winning back to back gold medals at the 2011 and 2012 IIHF World U18 Championships. He was a member of the 2013 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships team that won gold.

Amateur Hockey Career
Seth began playing organized ice hockey with local teams in Denver and playing with travel teams when he was eight years old. Seth and his family moved back to Texas when he was 12 years old.

At the same time, Seth decided that he wanted to play for the United States National Team Development Program (NTDP). He played for the Dallas Stars Bantam Major team, scoring 33 points in 31 games.

In the 2009 Bantam draft the Everett Silvertips selected Seth eleventh overall. He was projected to be a higher pick in the draft, but concerns that he would choose to play college hockey over the Western Hockey League (WHL) caused him to be selected lower.

After being drafted, Seth played another season in Dallas, with the Stars U-18 team before joining the NTDP. In his first season with the NTDP, he spent time with both the under 17 and under 18 teams. He served as co-captain of the U-17 team.

Seth registered 21 in 37 game of the NTDP season, which included league play in the United States Hockey League (USHL), plus international play and games against division II and III National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) teams.

Seth's 21 points led the team in defense scoring. He continued to serve as co-captain the following season, but slipped to second on the team in defense scoring registering 31 points in 52 total games.

After his second season, Seth needed to choose whether to play his draft year in the NCAA or with the Silvertips in the WHL.

Seth decided that Everett was not a good fit for him and was expected to attend the University of North Dakota. After being informed that he would not play for them the Silvertips traded the rights to talk to Seth to the Portland Winterhawks for a conditional bantam draft pick, but retained his rights.

Two weeks later, Portland signed Seth and traded two signed players and the rights for two more players to officially complete the trade for acquiring his rights.

While playing for Portland, Seth was projected to be a top selection in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.

At the season's mid-way point the NHL Central Scouting ranked Seth as the number one prospect among North American Skaters and the International Scouting Services listed him first overall.

Seth finished the season with 14 points and 56 points in 61 games. In the playoffs Portland won the Ed Chynoweth Cup as champions of the WHL. In the Memorial Cup tournament the Winterhawks advanced to the final where they faced the Halifax Mooseheads.

In the final, Seth scored a goal in a 6–4 loss, draft rivals Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin each recorded 5 points for Halifax.

Seth finished the playoffs with 5 goals and 15 points in 21 games. He was named to the First All-Star Team of the Western Conference and won the Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy as WHL rookie of the year.

Heading into the draft, Seth was again named the number one overall prospect. Despite the ranking, the Colorado Avalanche (who held the top pick) announced that they would not select him and would instead draft a forward.

At the draft, Seth slid to the fourth overall pick where he was selected by the Nashville Predators.

A month later, the Nashville Predators signed Seth to a three-year entry-level contract.

NHL Career
On October 3, 2013, Seth made his NHL debut with the Nashville Predators. On October 12, 2013, he scored his first NHL goal against Evgeni Nabokov of the New York Islanders.

Awards & Achievements

 * World U-17 Hockey Challenge All-Start Team (2011)
 * IIHF World U18 Championships Team USA Best Player (one of three) (2012)
 * WHL Western Conference First All-Star Team (2013)
 * Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy (2013)

International Play
Seth first represented the United States at the 2010 Under-17 (U-17) Four Nations Cup. In the tournament, he scored a goal and registered four points, helping Team USA to a first place finish.

Next, he represented USA in the 2011 World U-17 Hockey Challenge. Team USA finished the preliminary round undefeated winning all four of their games. In their semifinal game Team USA defeated Canada's Pacific team 6–5 in overtime to advance to the gold medal game.

In the Championship game Team USA was defeated 5–3, finishing the tournament as the silver medal winners. In the loss, Seth was named the player of the game for the United States.

Seth finished the tournament scoring a goal and two points. He was named to the tournament all-star team.

Later in the year, Seth joined Team USA for the 2011 IIHF World U18 Championships. The United States went undefeated in the preliminary round and the semifinal advancing the gold medal game. In the championship game, Team USA faced a two goal deficit in the third period.

The Americans came back eventually tying the game with 1:29 remaining to force overtime. USA scored four minutes into overtime to win the gold medal. Seth finished the tournament with three assists in six games.

When he was 17 years old, Seth was selected to play on the United States 2012 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships team, but he was unable to play due to an injury. He returned to international competition at the 2012 IIHF World U18 Championships where he was the captain for Team USA.

The American team was again undefeated in the tournament allowing only four total goals in their six games of the completion. It was the United States fourth straight gold medal at the Under 18 tournament.

Seth finished with 3 goals and 8 points in the 6 games, he was twice named player of the game for Team USA and was selected by the coaches as one of the team's top three players.

For the 2013 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, Seth was named one of Team USA's alternate captains. In a pre-tournament interview, Seth stated that he felt the Americans were the best team, despite Canada being heavily favored.

Team USA started the tournament with a win, but lost consecutive games to Russia and Canada.[46] With a 1–2 record Team USA needed a win against Slovakia to avoid being send to the relegation round.

The Americans won the game 9–3 and advanced to the medal round. In the playoff round USA defeated the Czech Republic and the Canadians to earn a spot in the gold medal game.

In the championship game, Seth had a bouncing puck go through his legs which helped Sweden take a 1–0 lead in the second period. Team USA rallied to win the game 3–1.

Offensively, Seth registered seven points in seven games and finished seventeenth in tournament scoring. He finished third overall in plus-minus with a +8 rating.

Personal Life
Seth's parents are Amy and Ronald "Popeye" Jones, a former NBA player who is currently an assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers. He has an older brother named Justin and a younger brother named Caleb.

Seth began playing hockey when he was 5 years old when his family was living in Denver, Colorado while his dad was playing for the Nuggets. Justin wanted to play inline hockey with friends. Justin and Seth were given inline skates and in the winter received ice hockey skates.

Not knowing much about ice hockey, Popeye asked Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Sakic (who was then playing in Denver with the Colorado Avalanche) for advice to help his sons become better players after running into him at the Pepsi Center where both of their respective teams played.

Sakic told Popeye to have his sons work on their skating, knowing that they would likely have size and natural athleticism.

As a result, Seth took figure skating classes for a year before he began playing organized hockey when he was 6 years old. He was in attendance at game 7 when the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001.