Hooton, a fifth round pick of the Ottawa Senators in the 2002, played college hockey at St. Cloud State, where he scored nineteen goals and added forty-three assists (sixty-two points) in 143 games. After college, Hooton, who hails from Nanaimo, British Columbia, joined the Phoenix Roadrunners of the ECHL, where he was the team's second leading scorer, racking up seventeen goals and twenty-five assists (forty-two points) in fifty-nine regular season games. Upon joining the Royals last season, Hooton had an immediate impact, scoring the first of what would prove to be three short-handed game winners-two of which came in the playoffs-in the second game of the season, a 6-4 win over the Johnstown Chiefs. Hooton hit full stride for the Royals in mid-December of last season, when he racked up twenty-three points (10g-13a) in a span of fifteen games (12/14/07 - 01/18/08). Hooton, who only missed one game during the entire season with the Royals, saved some of his best for last, however, as he scored eleven goals, including his fifth regular season game winner (tied for team lead), over the last twenty-one regular season games for the Royals.

In the playoffs, Hooton hit another gear-again. He started things off in dramatic fashion, scoring a short-handed overtime game winner against the Elmira Jackals in Game Two of the North Division Semi-Finals to even that series at one game a piece. Hooton then scored the overtime game winner in Reading's 2-1 win over the Jackals in Game Five to give the Royals a three-games-to-two lead in the best-of-seven first round series (which Reading won in six games). Hooton continued his playoff heroics in the North Division Finals against the Cincinnati Cyclones. In Game One of that series, he scored two goals, including his second short-handed game winner of the playoff season, in Reading's 5-3 win over the Cyclones. Hooton scored his league leading third short-handed goal of the playoff season in Game Two of that series, which Reading lost 3-2. But perhaps no goal scored by Hooton last year was more dramatic than the power play goal he bagged with just 4:12 remaining in regulation in Game Five to give the Royals a 1-0 win and Hooton his fourth playoff game winner, which tied him for the league lead in that category. That win also gave the Royals a three-games-to-two lead in the second round series against the Cyclones, which Reading ultimately lost in seven games.