Five New NHL Officials Will Split Time With the AHL

Five first-year NHL officials will spend substantial time in the American Hockey League during the 2026-27 season.

Referees Nick Isaacson, Austin Rook and Hayden Verbeek joined the NHL on minor-league contracts, along with linespersons Onni Hautamäki and Chris Martenet. The NHL Officials Association lists all five on its current minor-league roster.

Scouting the Refs reported that the three referees are expected to work most of their schedules in the AHL and receive one or two NHL assignments. Hautamäki and Martenet are expected to split their schedules between the NHL and AHL, with 40 games in each league.

Isaacson, Verbeek and Martenet all played in the Ontario Hockey League before moving into officiating. Rook worked in both the AHL and ECHL last season and was selected for the 2026 ECHL Kelly Cup Finals.

Hautamäki spent seven seasons officiating in Finland's Liiga and worked five AHL games during a visit to Canada in December 2025. He is the first Finnish official hired to work in the NHL.

The sixth new hire, Anthony Lapointe, enters the NHL as a full-time linesperson after four seasons of professional officiating. He worked the Calder Cup Finals in each of the past two seasons.

The NHL also moved four returning officials to full-time status: referees Beau Halkidis and Stephen Hiff, and linespersons Dylan Blujus and Jeremy Faucher.