Minor league greats: Trevor Jobe

Trevor Jobe prepares to take a faceoff while playing for the Johnstown Chiefs. Credit: The Tribune Democrat

For many hockey fans, the 1992-93 season is seen as the best in NHL history.

A look through the scoring leaders from that year show almost inconceivable numbers in the modern game. For comparison, Nikita Kucherov’s 128-point season last year, which put him 11 points ahead of the runner up in the scoring race, Connor McDavid, would’ve placed him 7^th amongst scoring leaders in 1993. With 160 points on the year, Mario Lemieux captured the art ross trophy, and five players finished the season with 60 goals over more.

Wayne Gretzky had 40 points in 24 games in the playoffs, and the Montreal Canadiens reeled off 11 straight OT wins en route to winning the Stanley Cup. However, while all that is very impressive, a lot of people forget what happened in the minor leagues that year. As weird as it might seem, they were also a lot of record-breaking performances in the AHL too. Binghamton Rangers forward Don Biggs finished the season with 138 points (still an AHL record) and Cape Breton’s Oilers forward Bill McDougall smashed all AHL playoff scoring records, recording an astonishing 52 points in 16 games.

Yet, more impressive still, is what happened in the ECHL.

Cue, Trevor Jobe.

To me, there aren’t many careers in hockey as bizarre and winding as this. A native of Brandon, Manitoba, Jobe career’s lasted from 1988 to 2005, and spanned numerous different leagues across numerous different skill levels. In between it all, he managed to sneak in 81 AHL games, recording 52 points. From Knoxville Tennessee to Ljubljana, Slovenia, Jobe’s career is a road map to say the least. However, that’s not to say it wasn’t successful. With 635 points in 335 games, Jobe is the 4^th all time leading scorer in ECHL history, and his 608 career goals are the 8^th highest in minor league hockey history.

Jobe with the Richmond Renegades. Credit: Beckett sports collectibles

A prolific scorer in junior with the Moose Jaw Warriors of the WHL, Jobe was drafted 133rd overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1987. After a season with their farm team in Newmarket (his only full AHL season) the team sent him down to the ECHL, where he would spend the next 2 years, before they fully cut ties with him. By 1992-93, Jobe found himself playing for the Nashville Knights, and it was here where he showed just how skilled he could be.

In 61 games that year, Jobe recorded 85 goals and 76 assists, for 161 points, an ECHL record which still stands and will most likely never be broken. He solely led the league in goals, points, powerplay goals (24) shots (331) and hat tricks (12), recording back to back ones on October 20^th and 21^st. On December 10^th, Jobe was recalled by the New Haven Senators, who were struggling at the time and in need of a scoring punch. After 3 games though, Jobe was returned to Nashville, and from there would start an 86-game point streak, lasting from December 19^th, 1992 to March 14^th, 1993. Over that 38-game span, Jobe recorded 112 points, unprecedented numbers even back then.

Despite this, Jobe would only get one more shot at the higher leagues, spending 10 games with the Atlanta Knights of the IHL, recording 7 points. Now, I bet a lot of you are thinking, what happened? How did this guy end up in the ECHL? Was he just a talented ECHL scorer? Well, not necessarily.

In January of 2012, a small thread was started on the Hockey Forum boards about Jobe. In it, a Mr. FerrisRox spoke to then Leafs GM Gord Stellick, who said that Jobe was a not only going to make the Leafs but be a key young player with the team. However, then the problems started. Thing is, it wasn’t his skills that kept Jobe out of the NHL,

it was alcohol.

Despite posting excellent numbers in junior, Jobe had garnered a reputation as a bit of a party animal, which is why he was taking so late in the draft. These issues would plague his entire career, as Jobe simply didn’t put everything into hockey. He was suspended from teams’ multiple times for DUI’s and under offenses, would often just quit on teams only to be picked up somewhere else, and was simply put, a purely offensive player. As amazing as Jobe’s offensive totals are, one look at his plus minus tells both sides of the coin. In 1997-98, with the Tuscon Gila Monsters of the CHL, Jobe was -34 while recording 29 points in 23 games.

Jobe with the Newmarket Saints. Credit: Amazon.ca

On December 30^th, 1998, a drunken Jobe was behind the wheel in an early morning car wreck while playing for the Columbus Cottonmouths. As well, he was found to not have a driver’s license. Rather than put the effort in to become an NHL star, Jobe was more satisfied with drinking and lighting up the minor leagues. He was out of shape, never played defense, and had a me first ideology when it came to his play, rightly deserved in some respects, but still not a good quality to have.

Jobe retired after the 2004-2005 lockout season, playing 17 games for the Winston Salem Polar Bears. Today, Jobe simply lives on as a footnote in hockey history, and a curious point of reference to any person casually browsing IHDB. Simply put, Jobe had all the offensive tools, but none of the drive, a disappointing finish, for one of the greatest minor league players.

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