Mike Danton signs with IFK Ore

Mike Danton had some succesful years in the OHL and was drafted in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. The 19-year-old Danton was picked by the New Jersey Devils. In 2000-01 he spent most of the season in Albany, playing only 2 NHL games. For the next season and most of 2002-03 he refused to play with Albany and was suspended by the Devils, however he played 17 NHL games before joining the St. Louis Blues for the 2003-04 season.

In what would be he his only season with the Blues he scored 12 points in 68 regular season games and 1 goal in five Stanley Cup games before being arrested only a couple of days after the Blues had been eliminated from the playoffs.

Danton was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder for trying to hire a hitman to murder his agent David Frost. Danton pled guilty and was sentenced to seven and half years in prison. In 2009, after five years, he was released on parole.

During his time in prison, Danton took university courses and after being released he started studying at the Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There he joined the University's hockey team, the Huskies, where he played a season and a half.

Trying to live a new life after his time in prison, Danton still had dreams of a comeback to professional hockey, but which club would sign a player who had been in prison for five years? The answer was IFK Ore, a Swedish club from the small towns of Furudal and Rättvik.

Ore plays in Division 1, the third highest league in Sweden. The league has six different divisions and a mix of pro, semipro and amateur players. "Of course we know about his background but that was many years ago and it's because of his hockey knowledge he has joined Ore", Ore's manager Jens Nielsen writes on the the club's website.

 

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