Austin Watson

Austin Watson
Date of birth	January 13, 1992
place of birth	Ann Arbor , Michigan , USA
size	191 cm
Weight	84 kg
position	Right wing
number	# 51
Shot hand	Right
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	2010 , 1st round, 18th position Nashville Predators
Career stations
2008-2010	Windsor Spitfires
2010–2012	Peterborough Petes
2012	London Knights
since 2012	Nashville Predators

Austin Watson (born January 13, 1992 in Ann Arbor , Michigan ) is an American ice hockey player who has been under contract with the Nashville Predators since March 2011 and plays for them on the position of right winger .

Career

After serving in his youth with the Detroit Compuware Ambassadors , Watson was selected 36th by the Windsor Spitfires in the 2008 OHL Priority Selection . In his first year in the Ontario Hockey League , he won the J. Ross Robertson Cup and eventually the Memorial Cup with the Spitfires . The 2009/10 season he started again in Windsor before moving to the Peterborough Petes in January 2010 . In 2010 he took part in the CHL Top Prospects Game for Team Cherry and was selected 18th in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft by the Nashville Predators . In the 2010/11 season Watson first played 68 games for the Petes in the OHL, before he was appointed to the Predators' farm team, the Milwaukee Admirals , in spring 2011 , for which he played eight games in the American Hockey League . For the 2011/12 season , Watson first returned to the Peterborough Petes in the Ontario Hockey League before they transferred him to the London Knights during the season within the league .

With the beginning of the 2012/13 season Watson finally moved to the organization of the Predators, where he made his debut in the NHL in April 2013 and came there on a total of six missions. The following two seasons he spent exclusively with the Admirals in the AHL, before he was again in the NHL squad at the beginning of the 2015/16 season. With the Predators, Watson reached the Stanley Cup final at the end of the 2016/17 season, but lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins there .

In July 2018, Watson was sentenced to three months probation after being arrested the previous month on a domestic violence case against his partner. As a result, he was banned from the NHL for 27 games. This suspension was subsequently reduced to 18 games in an arbitration process. However, Watson was banned from the NHL in January 2019 until further notice, but "exclusively with regard to his ongoing problems with alcohol abuse " (English: "related exclusively to his ongoing issues with alcohol abuse"). Watson returned to the Predators squad for the 2019/20 season.

International

For the United States , Watson took part in the 2010 U18 Junior Ice Hockey World Championship , where he and his team won the gold medal.

Achievements and Awards

2009 J. Ross Robertson Cup win with the Windsor Spitfires 2009 Memorial Cup win with the Windsor Spitfires 2010 Participation in the CHL Top Prospects Game

2012 J. Ross Robertson Cup win with the London Knights 2012 Wayne Gretzky 99 Award 2012 Memorial Cup All-Star Team

International

• 2010 gold medal at the U18 Junior World Championship

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2019/20 season

				Regular season						Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM
2008/09	Windsor Spitfires	OHL		63	10	19th	29	41		20th	0	3	3	15th
2009	Windsor Spitfires	Memorial Cup								5	0	1	1	2
2009/10	Windsor Spitfires	OHL		42	11	23	34	14th		-	-	-	-	-
2009/10	Peterborough Petes	OHL		10	9	11	20th	8th		4th	2	0	2	2
2010/11	Peterborough Petes	OHL		68	34	34	68	54		-	-	-	-	-
2010/11	Milwaukee Admirals	AHL		5	0	0	0	0		3	0	0	0	0
2011/12	Peterborough Petes	OHL		32	14th	19th	33	33		-	-	-	-	-
2011/12	London Knights	OHL		29	11	24	35	14th		19th	10	7th	17th	10
2012	London Knights	Memorial Cup								4th	2	3	5	0
2012/13	Milwaukee Admirals	AHL		72	20th	17th	37	22nd		4th	1	0	1	0
2012/13	Nashville Predators	NHL		6th	1	0	1	0		-	-	-	-	-
2013/14	Milwaukee Admirals	AHL		76	22nd	24	46	24		3	0	0	0	6th
2014/15	Milwaukee Admirals	AHL		75	26th	16	42	34		-	-	-	-	-
2015/16	Nashville Predators	NHL		57	3	7th	10	32		-	-	-	-	-
2016/17	Milwaukee Admirals	AHL		3	1	0	1	9		-	-	-	-	-
2016/17	Nashville Predators	NHL		77	5	12	17th	99		22nd	4th	5	9	28
2017/18	Nashville Predators	NHL		76	14th	5	19th	123		13	5	3	8th	12
2018/19	Milwaukee Admirals	AHL		2	4th	0	4th	0		-	-	-	-	-
2018/19	Nashville Predators	NHL		37	7th	9	16	39		6th	1	1	2	6th
2019/20	Nashville Predators	NHL		53	6th	8th	14th	65		4th	0	0	0	2
OHL total				244	89	130	219	164		43	12	10	22nd	27
Memorial Cup overall										9	2	4th	6th	2
AHL total				234	73	59	132	89		10	1	0	1	6th
NHL overall				306	36	41	77	358		45	10	9	19th	48

International

Represented the USA at:

• U18 Junior World Championship 2010
• U20 Junior World Championship 2012

year	team	event	result		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM
2010	United States	U18 World Cup			7th	2	1	3	33
2012	United States	U20 World Cup	7th place		6th	3	6th	9	0
Juniors overall					13	5	7th	12	33

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; ¹  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

• Player biography on the Nashville Predators website
• Austin Watson at eliteprospects.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Team Cherry wins CHL Top Prospects game, 4-2
2. ^ Mike Brehm: Predators forward Austin Watson suspended 27 games in domestic-violence case. usatoday.com, September 12, 2018, accessed September 25, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Paul Skrbina: Predators' Austin Watson suspended indefinitely after alcohol-related relapse. tennessean.com, January 29, 2019, accessed February 28, 2019 .