Career
Undrafted, Motzko played for Saint Cloud State University in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. After his senior year with Saint Cloud, Motzko was signed by the Columbus Blue Jackets on May 15, 2003. Joe was then sent to join affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League.
In the 2003-2004 season, his first full professional season, Motzko appeared in his first National Hockey League game with the Blue Jackets on February 2, 2004, against the Phoenix Coyotes.
In his fourth season with the Blue Jackets and having played mainly for the Syracuse Crunch, Motzko was traded by the Blue Jackets along with Mark Hartigan to the Anaheim Ducks for Curtis Glencross and Zenon Konopka on January 26, 2007. Ten days earlier, Motzko scored his first career National Hockey League goal at the United Center in Chicago against Nikolai Khabibulin and the Chicago Blackhawks in a 5-4 Blue Jackets victory.
Motzko was then assigned to the Portland Pirates before he was called up to the Ducks during the 2007 playoffs. On July 9, 2007, Joe was signed by the Washington Capitals.
He appeared in 8 games with the Capitals (in his Capitals debut, he had 3 points scoring 2 goals and one assist) before he was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers for Alexandre Giroux on February 26, 2008.
Motzko made his Thrashers debut in the 2008-2009 season on January 31, 2009, in a 2-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes
On July 16, 2009, Motzko signed with Russian team The Human Context Ministry of the Interior of the Kontinental Hockey League. However, before appearing in a game with Ministry of the Interior, Motzko was released on September 11, and four days later signed with European Research Council Ingolstadt of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. After four seasons with Ingolstadt, Motzko left as a free agent and joined neighbouring league in Austria on a one-year deal with European Commission Red Bulletin Salzburg of the EBEL on June 26, 2013.
