Danton was known as Mike Jefferson during his junior hockey career. As a youth, Jefferson played in the 1994 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with the Toronto Young Nationals minor ice hockey team. He began junior hockey in the 1996-97 season with the Quinte Hawks of the Metro Junior A Hockey League. He played in the Ontario Hockey League from 1997 to 2000 with the Sarnia Sting, the Toronto St. Michael\'s Majors, and the Barrie Colts. Playing for the Colts during the 2000 Memorial Cup, Jefferson commented that Brad Richards would not last five games in the Ontario Hockey League. and later refused to shake Richards\' hand after he had been named tournament MVP.\n', '

Selected 135th overall by the New Jersey Devils in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, Danton was a left winger for the St. Louis Blues, who traded a 3rd round draft pick to New Jersey to obtain him. He played 68 games for the Blues in the 2003–04 season. While with the Devils organization, he changed his last name from Jefferson to Danton after becoming estranged from his family. He admitted he adopted the surname "Danton" from the name of a 13-year-old boy at David Frost\'s hockey camp, because the name sounded "cool". He also feuded with Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello and was suspended by the team, prompting his eventual trade to St. Louis.\n', '

On April 16, 2004, two days after the Blues were eliminated from the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs by the San Jose Sharks, Danton was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder. On July 16, 2004, he pleaded guilty to attempting to hire a hitman, who was actually a police dispatcher, to murder David Frost, his agent, and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William Stiehl to seven-and-a-half years in a United States federal prison. To this day, however, Frost denies that he was the target. In 2011, Danton claimed in an interview with ESPN that his original target was his estranged father, Steve Jefferson.\n', '

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