Steve Downie | |||
---|---|---|---|
Born |
Newmarket, Ontario, Canada |
April 3, 1987 ||
Height | 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) | ||
Weight | 191 lb (87 kg; 13 st 9 lb) | ||
Position | Right Wing | ||
Shoots | Right | ||
NHL team Former teams |
Free Agent Philadelphia Flyers Tampa Bay Lightning Colorado Avalanche Pittsburgh Penguins Arizona Coyotes |
||
National team | Canada | ||
NHL Draft | 29th overall, 2005 Philadelphia Flyers |
||
Playing career | 2007–present |
Medal record | ||
---|---|---|
Representing Canada | ||
World Junior Championships | ||
2007 Sweden | ||
2006 Canada |
Steve Downie (born April 3, 1987) is a Canadian professional ice hockey right winger currently an unrestricted free agent who was last signed to the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League (NHL). He has previously played in the NHL for the Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins and Colorado Avalanche, the Flyers having drafted him in the first round, 29th overall, in 2005.
Downie grew up in Holland Landing, Ontario, the younger son of Anne and the late John Downie. He has one sibling, brother Greg. He attended Sacred Heart High School in Newmarket, playing hockey for the York-Simcoe Express AAA organization of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA). He also attended St. Joseph's Catholic High School in Windsor, Ontario, in 2004. Downie led his Express Bantam team to the All-Ontario AAA Championship in April 2002. He was drafted in the first round, 16th overall, by the Windsor Spitfires in the 2003 OHL Priority Selection.
Downie was selected in the first round, 29th overall, in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft by the Philadelphia Flyers. Not long after being drafted, Downie was suspended for five games early in the 2005–06 OHL season for an on-ice altercation with teammate Akim Aliu. During a practice on September 28, 2005, Downie blindly cross-checked Aliu in the face without warning, knocking out three of his teeth, and then proceeded to fight his younger teammate. The incident stemmed from 16-year-old Aliu's refusal to take part in a hazing incident, where he would have been forced to stand naked in a cramped bus bathroom with other rookies. The team suspended Downie for five games and Aliu for one, and Downie was told to undergo professional counselling. Spitfires Head Coach Moe Mantha, Jr. was suspended by the OHL and later fired by the team, and the team was fined $35,000 by the OHL. Downie left the team, requesting a trade, and was eventually traded to the Peterborough Petes in exchange for Peter Aston.