Anthony Stewart

With their second first round draft pick, the 25th overall, the Florida Panthers selected him.

While the Frontenacs missed the playoffs the following season, Stewart scored a career high 35 goals.

Norman immigrated to Canada from Jamaica in 1974, taking mainly seasonal jobs such as landscaping or construction, and Sue was a stay-at-home mother.

The family moved to Toronto the year after Stewart's birth.

During his childhood they were evicted from their home and moved to a subsidized shelter in what has been described as a "rough" neighbourhood of Scarborough.

Stewart began skating at the age of four and playing hockey at five.

As a young hockey player, he would often walk with his father to hockey games and practices.

On one such occasion, the two were walking in a blizzard when they were picked up by a fellow hockey parent, Bob Ziemendorf, who was driving his child to the same place.

Ziemendorf drove them home again after the practice, and from then on he regularly gave the family lifts and helped them with the cost of hockey and groceries.

During a particularly trying time for the family, Stewart moved in with Ziemendorf and his family for over a year and a half.

Stewart later stated that he believed that, without this help, he could not have got into the NHL.

Stewart played minor hockey for the North York Canadians.

He played so well that the cost of his hockey was subsidized personally by the head of the organization.

With Stewart on the team, the North York Canadians won three all-Ontario championships.

Anthony Stewart (born January 5, 1985) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, having played in the NHL, AHL, and KHL.

He was born in Quebec, and his family moved to Toronto while he was a child.

Stewart played minor hockey in Toronto, winning three all-Ontario championships.

After his minor hockey career, he was selected by the Kingston Frontenacs in the first round of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) draft.

Stewart was born in LaSalle, Quebec, in 1985, the oldest of seven children of Norman and Sue Stewart.

He played in the 1999 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with North York.

After finishing his minor hockey career, Stewart was selected by the Kingston Frontenacs in the first round of the OHL draft.

In his first season in the OHL, he scored 19 goals and 43 points, and in the 2002–03 season he increased his tally to 38 goals and 70 points, then added seven more points in five playoff games.

In the off-season, Stewart was named captain of the Frontenacs and was drafted in the first round of the NHL draft.

After two seasons with Kingston, he was drafted by the Florida Panthers in the first round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, at 25th overall.

He spent four years in the Panthers' system, dividing his time between the NHL and the American Hockey League (AHL), after which he joined the Atlanta Thrashers for two years.

When the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg to become the new Winnipeg Jets, they did not offer him a new contract, and he signed with the Carolina Hurricanes as a free agent.

After one season in Carolina he was traded to the Kings, but spent most of the season in the minor leagues.

Stewart has represented Canada internationally in two World Junior Championships, in the 2003 IIHF World U18 Championships, and twice in the ADT Canada-Russia Challenge.

He was the leading goal scorer for Team Canada when they won the World U18 Championships.

Going into the 2003 NHL entry draft, he was rated as the 19th best prospect among North American skaters.

In the 2004 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, in which Canada won a silver medal, Stewart tied for the tournament points lead.

He attended the Panthers' training camp prior to the start of the 2004–05 OHL season.

He performed impressively there but was sent back to Kingston to help his growth as a player.

In his last OHL season, he led the Frontenacs' scoring with 67 points.

After the Frontenacs failed to make the playoffs for the second consecutive year, Stewart made his professional debut, playing 10 games for the AHL team San Antonio Rampage, during which he scored a goal and two assists.

In the 2005 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, he helped Team Canada win a gold medal.

Representing the OHL at the Canada-Russia Challenge, Stewart helped his team go unbeaten in both tournaments (4–0), helping Canada to win the Challenge two years running.

He signed a professional tryout contract with the San Jose Sharks to begin the 2013–14 NHL season, but was not offered a contract.

He subsequently signed with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg in the KHL.

His younger brother Chris also played in the NHL, and retired after the 2019–2020 season playing for Philadelphia Flyers.