Former ECHL referee Chris Rooney officiated his 1,500th career National Hockey League game on Tuesday as the Boston Bruins hosted the Edmonton Oilers.
Rooney worked games in the ECHL from from 1996-98, including the 1998 Kelly Cup Finals.
He signed a minor league referee contract with the NHL in the summer of 1999 at the age of 24 and went on and spend three seasons in the minors before being promoted to a full time NHL referee status in the summer of 2002. He worked his first NHL regular-season game on Nov. 22, 2000 in Atlanta when the Thrashers hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Rooney has been selected to officiate the Stanley Cup Final seven times (2012, 2013, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024) while also working the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
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