Stéphane Auger

Stéphane Auger (born December 9, 1970, in Montreal, Quebec) is a National Hockey League (NHL) referee who wears uniform number 15. Auger began his career as an official at the age of 16 as a part time job in the winter. He began officiating provincial midget hockey and moved up to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League before turning to the professional ranks. He joined the National Hockey League Officials Association in 1994 and officiated his first NHL game on April 1, 2000, a game between the Chicago Blackhawks and host New York Islanders. He has officiated over 500 NHL games in his career, including 10 playoff games.

Controversy
Auger has twice been caught up in on-ice controversy. In an NHL game on December 13, 2005, in Montreal, he assessed Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan a misconduct penalty after concluding he verbally abused an official and made culturally insensitive comments against the referees, who were French-Canadian. The NHL reviewed the allegations against Doan and concluded that they were baseless. After a game on January 11, 2010, Vancouver Canucks forward Alexandre Burrows accused Auger of having a personal vendetta resulting from an incident in a previous game. Burrows stated that Auger told him before the game that he was going to "get him back" for making the official look bad previously. Burrows received four penalties in the third period of the game, a Vancouver loss against the Nashville Predators. The league investigated Burrows' claims and concluded that they could not be substantiated, while stating that "Referee Auger’s intentions were beyond reproach."