Jamie Benn Biography

Jamie Randolph Benn (born July 18, 1989) is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who currently serves as captain of the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL). Benn played his junior hockey career with the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League (WHL) prior to turning professional. He represented Canada at the 2009 World Junior Championships, where he helped capture a gold medal. With Team Canada, he won a gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He is the younger brother of defenseman Jordie Benn, who plays for the Montreal Canadiens. In the 2014-15 season, Benn was awarded the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scorer with 87 points.

Playing career

Benn grew up playing hockey for the Peninsula Eagles minor hockey association and attended Stelly's Secondary School as a teenager. He played for the Peninsula Panthers of the VIJHL, a local Junior B team located in North Saanich, British Columbia, during the 2005-06 season. Following this he played for the Victoria Grizzlies of the Junior A British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) for parts of three seasons from 2006-2008.

Kelowna Rockets

Benn was drafted by the Dallas Stars 129th overall in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft from the Victoria Grizzlies Following his draft, Benn began his major junior career with the Kelowna Rockets in the WHL. He scored 65 points in his rookie season in 2007-08, then improved to a team-high 46 goals to go with 36 assists and 82 points in just 56 games in 2008-09. After being named to the WHL West First All-Star Team, Benn paced the Rockets with a playoff-leading 33 points en route to the 2009 Ed Chynoweth Cup title. In the subsequent 2009 Memorial Cup tournament, held in Rimouski, Quebec, Benn notched a four-goal game and added an assist in the second round-robin match against the Drummondville Voltigeurs, a 6-4 win, to secure the Rockets a berth in the tournament final. Although Benn's Rockets lost to the Windsor Spitfires 4-1 in the Final, Benn was named to the Tournament All-Star Team, along with teammate Tyler Myers.

Dallas Stars

Benn made the Stars' roster for the 2009-10 season and scored his first NHL goal on October 11, 2009, against Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks. Benn tied the score 3-3 late in the game, but the Stars lost later in the shootout.

At the end of his rookie season he was sent down to the Stars' AHL affiliate Texas Stars in the suburbs of Austin for the 2010 Calder Cup playoffs. There he is credited as being largely responsible for the 2009-10 Western Conference Champions banner hanging in the Cedar Park Center. He scored 14 goals and had 26 points in 24 playoffs games as Texas fell to the Hershey Bears in the Calder Cup Finals. Benn later spoke of the experience, "I had a fun summer here...it was a big part of my hockey career and helped me develop my game. I definitely loved playing here."?

Benn took an opportunity in February 2011 after teammate Brad Richards' concussion to take a leading role with the team. During the SuperSkills Competition, Benn participated in the Accuracy Shooting contest and won his leg against Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Drouin then the finals against Philadelphia Flyers rookie Matt Read with times of 13.583 and 10.204 seconds respectively.

With the 2012-13 season delayed due to the labour lock-out, Benn signed a contract for the duration of the dispute with the Hamburg Freezers of the German DEL on October 2, 2012. Unable to initially agree to a contract with the Stars, Benn missed the first four games of the shortened NHL season before re-signing to a five-year, $26.25 million contract on January 24, 2013.

Benn was named the sixth captain of the Dallas Stars on September 19, 2013.

On April 11, 2015, Benn scored 4 points in the Stars' last regular season game to finish with 87 points on the season and win the Art Ross Trophy. His final point, a secondary assist with 8.5 seconds left in the game, allowed him to overtake John Tavares for the award.

On July 15, 2016, Benn agreed to an eight-year, $76 million contract extension with Dallas that runs through the 2024-25 NHL season at an average annual value of $9.5 million.

International play

Canada}}

Playing in his second WHL season, Benn was named to Team Canada, along with Kelowna Rockets teammate Tyler Myers, for the 2009 World Junior Championships in Ottawa. He contributed 4 goals and 2 assists in 6 games, helping Canada to its record-tying fifth straight gold medal, defeating Sweden 5-1 in the final. Benn first represented the senior team at the 2012 IIHF World Championship.

On January 7, 2014, Benn was named to the Canadian Olympic hockey team for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi despite not being invited to the orientation camp during the summer of 2013. In his first game as an Olympian, Benn scored the game-winning goal in Canada's first game against Norway in a 3-1 victory. He scored the only goal in a 1-0 win against the United States in the semi-final, to advance Canada to the gold medal game, where they eventually beat Sweden 3-0.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
2004-05	Peninsula Panthers	VIJHL		4	1	2	3	2		2	0	0	0	0
2005-06	Peninsula Panthers	VIJHL		38	31	24	55	92		7	5	7	12	20
2005-06	Victoria Salsa	BCHL		6	0	0	0	0		"?	"?	"?	"?	"?
2006-07	Victoria Grizzlies	BCHL		53	42	23	65	78		11	5	4	9	12
2007-08	Kelowna Rockets	WHL		51	33	32	65	68		7	3	8	11	4
2008-09	Kelowna Rockets	WHL		56	46	36	82	71		19	13	20	33	18
2009-10	Dallas Stars	NHL		82	22	19	41	45		"?	"?	"?	"?	"?
2009-10	Texas Stars	AHL		"?	"?	"?	"?	"?		24	14	12	26	22
2010-11	Dallas Stars	NHL		69	22	34	56	52		"?	"?	"?	"?	"?
2011-12	Dallas Stars	NHL		71	26	37	63	55		"?	"?	"?	"?	"?
2012-13	Hamburg Freezers	DEL		19	7	13	20	30		"?	"?	"?	"?	"?
2012-13	Dallas Stars	NHL		41	12	21	33	40		"?	"?	"?	"?	"?
2013-14	Dallas Stars	NHL		81	34	45	79	64		6	4	1	5	4
2014-15	Dallas Stars	NHL		82	35	52	87	64		"?	"?	"?	"?	"?
2015-16	Dallas Stars	NHL		82	41	48	89	64		13	5	10	15	10
2016-17	Dallas Stars	NHL		77	26	43	69	66		"?	"?	"?	"?	"?
NHL totals				585	218	299	517	450		19	9	11	20	14

International

Year	Team	Event	Result		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
2009	Canada	WJC			6	4	2	6	4
2012	Canada	WC	5th		8	3	2	5	4
2014	Canada	Oly			6	2	0	2	4
Junior totals					6	4	2	6	4
Senior totals					14	5	2	7	8

Awards and honours

Award	Year	Ref
WHL West First All-Star Team	2008-09
Ed Chynoweth Trophy - Memorial Cup Leading Scorer	2009
Ed Chynoweth Cup	2008-09
CHL Memorial Cup All-Star Team	2009
NHL All-Star	2012, 2016
NHL First All-Star Team	2013-14, 2015-16
NHL Second All-Star Team	2014-15
Art Ross Trophy	2014-15

• Won a World Junior Gold Medal with Team Canada in 2009.
• Won an Olympic Gold Medal in 2014.