Franchise Goals, Points Leader Calls It a Career

Wrist shot, high glove. I know it, you know it, everyone in the building knows it. And yet, Dalton Jay still found the twine that exact way so many times. 

“Even though I knew it was coming, [Jay] found a way to put a ton of them past me,” said goaltender Chris Paulin, who played both with and against Jay and is now a Prowlers assistant coach. “His breakaway, high glove shot reminded me a little of Mariano Rivera’s cutter. Everyone knew that’s what he was throwing but his execution made it irrelevant. If the FPHL had a Hall of Fame, he’d be on the first ballot.”

The eight-year FPHL veteran announced his retirement Monday, leaving behind a lasting impression on the league and in Port Huron, where he played 329 of his 391 career games.

“It’s always sad when a teammate decides to step away from the game, but it’s the inevitable part of it for all of us,” said Prowlers general manager Matt Graham, Jay’s teammate with Danbury and Port Huron. “I am happy that I was able to spend eight seasons with [Jay], not only as a teammate, but as a friend. I watched him come into the league and dominate his first season. He continued to do so, but also was able to become an even more well rounded and accountable player, and that’s what I was the most proud of. He’s the franchise leader in almost every statistical category, but that’s only a small piece of what he contributed to the organization and hockey in Port Huron. I wish him nothing but the best in his future, and look forward to seeing him even more away from the rink.”

After a four-year NCAA career at Westfield State University, Jay broke into the FPHL as a rookie with the Danbury Titans during the 2016-17 season, where that iconic wrister took shape. 

“I used to do nothing but deking; deke to the backhand every time,” Jay said. “I had four breakaways in my first game [with Danbury] and all four times I deked. The fifth time, I deked and scored. It was after that game that I thought, ‘Maybe I should try something different.’ My father always told me the same thing, ‘Goalies can’t react fast enough,’ so I practiced [the quick wrister] and I started shooting on breakaways and high glove in general. It started going in more times than not and deking went right out the window.”

Combining that new skill with his breakaway ability turned Jay into an offensive force.

“I’ve never seen a player who could get breakaways at will like him,” said Prowlers assistant general manager Alex Johnson, Jay’s teammate in Danbury and Port Huron. “He really is a special player and I’m grateful I had him to pass the puck to all of these years.”

The Titans folded following Jay’s team-leading 70-point season and he was selected by the Carolina Thunderbirds in the dispersal draft. Six games into the 2017-18 campaign, he was shipped to Port Huron, a place he’d come to despise as a visitor.

“When I played in Danbury, and we came [to Port Huron], I did not like this place,” Jay said. “The fans would always give it to you. Coming here, I already thought I wasn’t going to like it.”

It didn’t take long for that mood to change. 

“When I got to know Port Huron and got to experience it, I fell in love with this place,” Jay, a Hamilton, Ontario native, said. “It has everything I could want, from the culture and history to me being a big fisherman, you can’t have better fisheries than this area. Plus, it’s a stone’s throw away from Canada.”

That started a track to Jay becoming a franchise icon, highlighted by a career year in 2018-19 with 43 goals and a league-high 62 assists for 105 points that earned him an FPHL Forward of the Year award. 

“Everything seemed to go the right way [that season],” Jay said in a December 2022 interview. “I was playing with Matt Robertson, who was a great player, and Zach Zulkanycz was our centerman and he was a big body who opened up the ice. It just seemed that we knew exactly where each other was going to be on the ice and it just clicked.”

He retires as the all-time franchise leader in games played (329), goals (209) and points (440) and reached significant league milestones in the past couple of seasons, including in November 2022 when he became the fourth player in FPHL history to score 200 goals (he then passed Justin Brausen for third on the list when he scored his 204th goal three games later). 

“His natural offensive ability has made him one of the most productive players in league history and we have been so lucky to have that kind of player for so long,” said longtime teammate Austin Fetterly.

More recently, he became the third member of the league’s 500-point club during a March 2024 road game in, of all places, Danbury.

“That milestone is pretty special,” Jay said. “The biggest thing I can relate it to is that it's like 1,000 points in the NHL. The significance of it in this league is crazy.

“Talking to [Graham and Johnson], a couple of games go by and they said, ‘You know where you’re going to end up getting this.’ I didn’t know where we were playing next. They told me Danbury and I thought, ‘Of course.’ To get that milestone there is something I’ll look back on and it’ll mean a little bit more.”

His 500th point didn’t come from his patented wrister, however. It came on a deflection, a moment that is ingrained in the minds of his teammates.

“I remember looking down the bench at the guys and seeing the joy and genuine excitement from everyone,” said Prowlers captain Evan Foley. “The best part of that entire sequence was looking over and seeing the fun and happiness on Dalton's face. Not a lot of people can say they have 500 points in professional hockey. He can.”

Not everyone gets to decide when they’re done. Many are told at levels from pee wee to the pros that they can’t cut it anymore and are forced away from competing before they might be ready. Jay had the opportunity to hang up the skates on his terms.

“There’s always that uncertainty of, ‘Am I done? Do I want to be done?’” Jay said. “As a player, we come into this league thinking we’re indestructible and we’re going to be playing until we’re 40 years old. I had a core group of people around me, mostly my parents and my wife, who said, ‘When you’re done, you’ll know that you’re done.’ You don’t want to leave the game too early because you’ll regret the decision. It became reality that I knew I was done and I was ok with it. I was at peace. There was no arguing with myself.

“When I came to the final decision that this was it and it was time to end this chapter of my life in hockey that has led me to all different places in North America and introduced me to great people along the way, I felt it was time to give back to the sport that has given me so much love.”

If you open the Prowlers, FPHL and even Westfield State record books, you’ll see Jay’s name everywhere. Despite one of the most productive careers in league history, one honor eluded him.

“I reflected on how my career has gone,” Jay said. “My parents put it in perspective when they went back through my career from the age of six to this season and said, ‘What more could you ask for in a career?’ Graham and Johnson always say, ‘You’re just missing a championship,’ and unfortunately, that’s the only thing I couldn’t accomplish. It’s the hardest thing to do and it’s tough to go out on that, but unfortunately, it’s just meant to be that way.”

Although his familiar No. 92 won’t take the ice for the Prowlers’ home opener, Jay will still have a front row seat. 

“I’ll probably be driving the zamboni,” he laughed. “But that’s when it’s really going to set in that I’m not playing, I’m not dressing and I’m not going to be part of the culture in the locker room. It’s going to be tough but it’s something every player comes to in their career.”

It’s possible that number is destined to be the first retired by the Prowlers organization. The team recognizes the IHL Flags’ retired numbers but have never given the honor themselves. The front office says it is looking into planning that process.

“I don’t doubt 92 will deservedly be in the rafters at some point in the future and I look forward to being there for that as well,” Foley said.

“Watching him grow as a player and a person has been an awesome ride I’ll never forget,” Johnson said. “I don’t think anyone will ever break his records in a Port Huron jersey. I have a feeling that 92 is a number that will be remembered forever in McMorran.”

Despite moving on from hockey, Jay will stick around Port Huron, continuing his job at McMorran Place, where he worked during the latter years of his playing career. 

“I fell in love with this place so much that I made it my home,” Jay said. “This is where I reside.”

Photos courtesy of Delta Imaging