After only two seasons with the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League from 1993 through 1995, ice hockey defenseman Ed Jovanovski joined the National Hockey League’s Florida Panthers, who had recruited him in 1994. He was a member of the Canadian delegation to the 1995 World Junior Championships, where he took home a gold medal, and would later represent his country at the 1998 and 2000 World Championships without reaching the podium. In the middle of the 1998-1999 season, after three and a half years with the Panthers, he was traded to the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks and, during a tenure with the squad that lasted until 2006, won the Babe Pratt Trophy in 2001, 2002, and 2003 as the team’s top defenseman. Along the way he also travelled to the 2002 Winter Olympics with Canada, where he suited up for six matches and took home one of Canada’s first Olympic gold medals in ice hockey in a half century. Jovanovski was also in the original Canadian selection for the Winter Games but was forced to withdraw after suffering an abdominal injury. He joined the Phoenix Coyotes in 2006, where he remained affiliated until 2010 when he rejoined the Florida Panthers for a further four years in the NHL. He won silver medals at the 2005 and 2008 World Championships. He was also is the subject of Bill Yancoff’s 2005 documentary “The Late Bloomer: Ed Jovanovski”.
Canada