Jody Shelley

Jody Shelley (born on February 7, 1976) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger.

During his NHL career, he played for the Columbus Blue Jackets, San Jose Sharks, New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers.

Jody was known as an enforcer and had the most regular season major penalties for fighting since he joined the league (173 mins).

Playing Career
Jody began playing hockey when he was young in the Yarmouth County Minor Hockey Association until his midget year.

He moved away from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia when he was 18 to play for the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Jody then played 19 games for Dalhousie University before being signed by the Saint John Flames in the AHL to make his pro debut.

On September 1, 1998, Jody was signed as a free agent by the Calgary Flames, but he never played for them. He played with Saint John until 2000.

On August 17, 2000 (almost two years later), he was signed as a free agent by the Columbus Blue Jackets and played one game for them in the 2000–01 season. During that one game, Jody had ten minutes in penalties.

After that, he played fairly regularly as the Blue Jackets' enforcer averaging over 200 minutes in penalties a season.

During the 2003–04 NHL season, Jody got into a career-high 30 fights. He played five-and-a-half seasons for the Blue Jackets.

On January 29, 2008, he was traded to the San Jose Sharks for a sixth-round draft pick in 2009 and re-signed with the Sharks in the off-season.

In a 2008 regular season match against the Dallas Stars, Sean Avery hit Brad Lukowich and after the incident, Jody and Avery began to throw water and Gatorade at each other while jawing at each other.

On February 12, 2010 (two years after joining San Jose), he was traded by the Sharks to the Rangers for a conditional sixth-round draft pick.

On July 1, 2010, Jody signed a three-year contract with the Philadelphia Flyers.

On September 20, 2011, he was suspended for the remainder of the preseason and 5 regular season games for boarding Darryl Boyce.

On August 9, 2013, with no NHL contract offers following the expiration of his deal with the Flyers, Jody announced his retirement from professional hockey and joined the team he started his NHL career with (the Blue Jackets) on a front office job.

Career Records

 * Currently holds the all time record in penalty minutes (420) for the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL.
 * Also holds the single season record for penalty minutes (357) for the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL
 * Holds single-game penalty minutes record for the San Jose Sharks. (41)
 * His number (25) was retired from the Halifax Mooseheads.
 * Was named number one Mooseheads player of all time.

International Play
During the 2004-05 NHL lockout, Jody played for the JYP in the Finnish SM-Liiga.

He played 11 games in the regular season with no goals, one assist and 20 penalty minutes.

During the playoffs, Jody played 3 games with no points and 25 penalty minutes.

Personal Life
On July 11, 2004, Jody married his fiancée, Mandy Shelley (née Thompson) of Laurelville, Ohio. They met in a Columbus, Ohio bar while he was playing for the Blue Jackets.

In November of 2008, they welcomed their first son, Owen William Shelley.

Jody hosts the Jody Shelley Golf Fore Health in his hometown of Yarmouth every summer which raises money for hospital equipment.

On July 13, 2013, the Town of Yarmouth declared the day as "Jody Shelley Day" and honoured Jody by renaming Cottage Street as Jody Shelley Drive and also renumbering the Mariners Centre (the local winter sports facility) as 45 Jody Shelley Drive after his shirt number.