‘It was like a mini NHL': Twenty years ago, a star-laden team won it all in the AHL's greatest season

New York Times

a day ago

Ben Stafford always had grander plans. After four years as a spunky two-way center at Yale University and three more bouncing around minor-league hockey, the Minnesota native dreamed of a career in military medicine. He spent one year at medical school after hanging up his skates, before that path changed and he joined the United States Marine Corps, deploying to places such as Fallujah, Iraq and Kuwait. He is now the chief operating officer of a renewable energy company headquartered in New York City.
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But before all that, Stafford had one final, unforgettable season in professional hockey 20 years ago, playing in the American Hockey League for the eventual champions, the 2004-05 Philadelphia Phantoms.
'Getting into that season, I had a pretty good sense that it would be my last year,' Stafford said. 'I was just scratching and clawing, anything to get a cup of coffee in the show. I loved playing for (coach John Stevens), I loved the players, I loved Philly. So it was all good. But it just wasn't progressing.'
The competition for Stafford, then 26, who had posted a modest 12 goals in 73 games with the Phantoms the previous season, got much stiffer in 2004-05, both internally and around the league. Because of the NHL lockout, which wiped out the entire season, the AHL was loaded with up-and-coming players and prospects, many of whom would have been in the NHL had it not been for the work stoppage and many of whom went on to become stars.
It was, quite simply, the most talent-laden season in modern AHL history.
Jason Spezza led the league in scoring, with 117 points in 80 games for the Binghamton Senators. Eric Staal paced the Lowell Lock Monsters, posting 77 points. Dustin Brown managed 74 points for the Manchester Monarchs. Patrice Bergeron tallied 61 points in 68 games for the Providence Bruins. In 54 games with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, goalie Marc-Andre Fleury went 26-19-4 with a 2.52 goals-against average.
Brent Burns, Duncan Keith, Niklas Kronwall, Kevin Bieksa, Mike Cammalleri, Ryane Clowe, Zach Parise, Joffrey Lupul, Ryan Whitney, Ryan Kesler — all of them, and many others, spent 2004-05 in the AHL.
And the Phantoms, with a mix of fresh faces, seasoned minor league vets and rugged enforcers — including Patrick Sharp, Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, R.J. Umberger and more — proved to be the greatest team in a league that, for a brief moment, was the greatest in the world.
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'Everywhere we went, we saw multiple NHL players playing down in the minors that season,' said Sharp, who went on to win three Stanley Cup championships with the Chicago Blackhawks and an Olympic gold medal with Team Canada. 'The All-Star team that year was just a stacked list of prospects that basically all went on and had great careers. It's cool to look back at that list and actually be a part of it.'
Said Stevens: 'It was like a mini NHL, with the young stars of tomorrow. It was a lot of fun to be a part of it.'
Despite the league's influx of talent, the Phantoms didn't have a player in the top 20 in scoring in the regular season, despite finishing in second place in their division with a tidy 48-25-7 record. Umberger, their top-line center and a 2001 first-round pick by Vancouver, set the pace with 65 points (21 goals, 44 assists) in 80 games, while journeyman Jon Sim potted a team-high 35 goals.
'We were more of a team-team,' Stevens said. 'We didn't have one guy carrying the load.'
But they still had a roster sprinkled with future NHL talent. Up front, Umberger eventually spent 11 seasons in the league, including a pair of stints with the Flyers, and Sharp, who played mostly as the Phantoms' second-line center, was one of the better wingers of his era with 939 career games over parts of 15 seasons with the Flyers, Blackhawks and Stars.
On defense, Dennis Seidenberg (859 career NHL games), Joni Pitkanen (535) and Randy Jones (365) anchored a stingy group that was led by the offensive-minded John Slaney, who was late into what was mostly a minor-league career but who also had 268 NHL games with seven different teams.
There was an abundance of toughness, as the Phantoms finished fourth in the AHL with 2,244 penalty minutes. There was Ben Eager (407 career NHL games) and Riley Cote (156) and later Todd Fedoruk, who joined midway through the season as an established NHL player/enforcer. He went on to play for five more years in the NHL, finishing with 545 career games.
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In goal, Antero Niittymaki, who got the bulk of the work in net that season, went on to play for six NHL seasons with the Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning and San Jose Sharks. He was backed up by AHL and Phantoms veteran Neil Little, who was the starter seven years earlier when the club captured its first Calder Cup in 1998, in front of a raucous, sellout crowd at the Spectrum.
'We were loaded,' Little said of the 2004-05 squad. 'We had Nitty in net, as well. He had the bulk (of the work) and I was kind of helping him transition into being a No. 1 guy. And then we were loaded on the D core, and up front we had all kinds of talent and toughness. We had all the ingredients. It was just a matter of, can we put this all together?'
Slaney, now an assistant coach with the AHL's Tucson Roadrunners, said, 'You knew some players like (Sharp) were going to play in the NHL eventually, and Randy Jones on the back end, and Joni Pitkanen. Every night, you could see these players getting better and better — they were performing at a high level. For me, being an older guy, watching the younger guys perform really well was exciting. They were focused on doing the right things every night.'
Overseeing the club was Stevens — already a notable figure in Philadelphia hockey after he captained the 1998 championship Phantoms team as a defenseman. Then, after an eye injury forced him into early retirement, he worked as an assistant under former Phantoms coach and Flyers legend/Hall of Fame forward Bill Barber. Stevens eventually replaced Ken Hitchcock as the Flyers' coach in 2006, guiding them to an appearance in the Eastern Conference final in 2008, before going to Los Angeles, where he was a part of Stanley Cup championship teams in 2012 and 2014 as an assistant to Darryl Sutter. Stevens won another championship as an assistant to Bruce Cassidy's Vegas Golden Knights in 2023, where he remains today.
One of Stevens' assistants with the Phantoms then was Craig Berube — considered one of the toughest players in NHL history, who went on to win the Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues as their head coach in 2019, and who just completed his first season behind the Toronto Maple Leafs' bench.
Stevens, Berube and assistant coach Kjell Samuelsson established the Phantoms' team identity early. It was a defensive mentality built on hard work, playing for one another and pushing back with their ample toughness when necessary in a league in which every team still had at least one or two glove-droppers.
'We were coached by a really good coach,' Seidenberg said. 'It was very structured. He instilled that attitude into the lineup.'
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The Phantoms lost their first two games — and then promptly rattled off 17 straight wins, then an AHL record. They scored more than four goals just twice during that streak, while seven of those wins were by one goal — including four in overtime and two in the shootout, which was new to the AHL that year and was phased into the NHL the following season.
The undercurrent of the ongoing NHL lockout, though, often made headlines. Several times throughout the season, there seemed to be progress toward a new collective bargaining agreement between the league and the NHL Players' Association, only for it fall apart.
Considering there were players on every AHL team who would inevitably be recalled to the NHL were they to come to an agreement — including guys such as Sharp, Seidenberg and Pitkanen, who had all spent significant time with the big club the previous season — the potential for distraction was there.
But that didn't happen. The Phantoms' longest losing streak of the season was five games in December, with four of those losses coming in either overtime or the shootout.
Said Sharp: 'I was really interested in what was going on at the highest level, as far as, 'Are we going to play games this year? Is there going to be a training camp? Am I going to get a chance to compete and show I can be an NHL player?' But on the other side of things, I was in the middle of a full season with teammates and coaches and training staff, and we were committed to what was going on there.'
By mid-February, it was evident there wasn't going to be any NHL hockey that year.
'Once you knew that it was a lockout for the whole season, there was a huge commitment to our group that hey, we've got a chance to go deep in the playoffs,' Sharp said. 'And let's go get this thing.'
But then Stevens had a problem. He knew Carter and Richards, hotshot prospects and Flyers first-round picks, were wrapping up their junior careers that year, and that he had to find a way to get them into the lineup when they came aboard in April.
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Carter was drafted No. 11 in 2003 — arguably the deepest draft of the century so far. Richards was taken at No. 24. Both were standouts as teenagers. Carter led the Soo Greyhounds in scoring in each of his final three seasons there, eclipsing 30 goals every season, while Richards captained the Kitchener Rangers to the Memorial Cup in 2003 and was the captain of Team Canada's World Junior Championship squad in 2005, too. Everyone knew the pair would be in the NHL sooner than later — perhaps even that season, had there been one.
Umberger and Sharp were the Phantoms' top two centers prior to the arrival of Carter and Richards — who were also centers. Stevens, as he recalled, went to Sharp with a sensitive question.
'How would you feel about playing wing?' Stevens asked.
'Would I be playing with Jeff Carter?' Sharp replied.
He would be, Stevens told him.
'Then I feel pretty good about it,' Sharp said.
Sharp had a chuckle when reminded of that exchange.
'That's pretty much exactly what happened,' he said. 'It seems like when I got put to the wing, it freed me up a little bit offensively. If that meant I got to play alongside Carts on the top line, I was going to be all for it, no doubt.'
Said Carter: 'Sharpie was really good with me. He was a huge help for me just kind of adjusting to the pro game and everything that comes with it. All those guys were awesome. … It can be tough coming in at the end of the year, but no one cared. They just wanted to win. If I could play to my abilities and help them win, they were like, all right, let's go.'
Carter, who arrived before Richards and managed to get into three regular-season games, immediately showed why he was such an exciting prospect. He led the Calder Cup playoffs in goals (12) and points (23), while Sharp was second in playoff scoring with 21 points.
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Richards, who showed up midway through the Phantoms' second-round series against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, posted 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in 14 playoff games, showcasing the renowned tenacity that eventually helped him become captain of the Flyers in 2008.
The fit was seamless.
'They were so respectful,' said Stevens, who also coached Carter and Richards when they played key roles in the Kings' Stanley Cup championships. 'They were the guys picking up pucks at the end of practice. They were last ones getting on the elevator, getting on the bus. They were, in their own right, young stars at that time; everybody knew it. They didn't act like young stars. They acted like young guys that were happy to be a part of a team and were willing to do whatever they could to help out. I think because of that, they were easily accepted by the group, and allowed us to do what we did.'
Suddenly, with solid goaltending and a much more high-powered attack adding to their two-way depth up and down the lineup, the Phantoms reached a new level. They dispatched the Norfolk Admirals in the first round in six games, the Penguins in the second round in five games, and the Bruins in the conference finals in six games to reach the Calder Cup finals and a meeting with the Chicago Wolves.
And because of the circus taking over their home arena — the since-demolished Spectrum — the Phantoms moved into the NHL arena across the parking lot, then known as Wachovia Center. Flyers general manager Bob Clarke also allowed the Phantoms to use the Flyers' dressing room, giving them access to the more capacious and advanced facilities.
'We were getting treated like NHL players,' Slaney said. 'You've got the locker room, the weight room, the cold tubs — you're getting prepared for a game every night. That kind of stuff behind the scenes was great. It helped the trainers, and helped the players to be ready to perform.'
The city took notice. The Phantoms had always drawn well for an AHL team since they were founded in 1996 — they led the league in attendance from 1996-97 to 2001-02, and were seventh that season, averaging 7,967 fans per game. But after they captured the first two games of the finals in Chicago, they returned to Philadelphia for games 3 and 4 to larger-than-normal crowds that were starved for a winning team.
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'One thing I noticed, it was louder every game compared to the Spectrum,' Slaney said. 'It was the only hockey in town in Philly at the time, so people were actually showing up.'
More than 12,000 fans attended their 2-1 win in Game 3, in which goals by Richards and Sharp were the difference. Then, in Game 4 on June 10, 2005, the Phantoms drew an AHL-record sellout crowd of 20,103, all draped in purple T-shirts handed out at the door, to see the team complete the sweep with a 5-2 victory to raise the Calder Cup.
And it wasn't Sharp, Carter, Richards or any other future NHL regulars who scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal.
It was the scrappy Stafford, who managed to stay in the lineup for all 80 regular-season games and 21 playoff games, who hopped over the bench on a rush and potted the rebound of a shot from Sharp to give the Phantoms a commanding 3-0 second-period lead. It was just his second goal of the postseason, but it was the biggest of his career.
'Hard to believe, actually,' Stafford said, 'that it resulted in the way that it did.'
(Editor's note: The Athletic's Kevin Kurz worked as assistant public relations director for the Philadelphia Phantoms in 2005. He joined The Athletic in 2017.)
(Top photo of Mike Richards (right): Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)