Born in Port Colborne, Ontario, Amell started officiating when he was 21 and in his second year at the Durham College in Oshawa. Amell moved up the ranks pretty quick due to his size and calm demeanor on the ice and worked his first Ontario Hockey League (OHL) three years later at the age of 24. He worked the OHL for four years as a linesman. On his fourth year, the Montreal Canadiens relocated their AHL team to Hamilton, Ontario creating a need for the AHL to form a staff of local linesmen in the area. Amell was selected along with five other Southern Ontario linesmen to work the games that year. He ended up working the OHL Finals and also got the chance to work the AHL Calder Cup Finals. In the summer of 1997, the National Hockey League offered him a minor league contract (40-40) as a linesman splitting his duties between the AHL and the NHL. Amell worked his first NHL Regular Season game in Pittsburgh on October 11th, 1997 when the Carolina Hurricanes were in town to play the Penguins. His first playoff game came on April 18th, 2002 when the Montreal Canadiens visited the Boston Bruins at the Fleet Center Arena. Amell worked the 2011 NHL Winter Classic between the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins played at the Pittsburgh Heinz Field on January 1st 2011 and also the 2017 Coors Light Stadium Series game in the same building in Pittsburgh between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Amell was a member of the officiating staff that went to Russia to work the 2014 Sochi Olympics and was selected to work the Gold medal game . His peers have voted him in the summer of 2017 to serve on the NHLOA Executive.
