Hodgson Takes Road Less-Traveled To NHL Debut

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Just as the dust began to settle from the NHL's Trade Deadline on Monday afternoon, a truly feel-good story emerged in the evening as the Philadelphia Flyers signed Lehigh Valley Phantoms forward Hayden Hodgson to a one-year NHL contract for the remainder of the 2021-22 season.

To call Hodgson's rise this season from AHL training camp invitee in Phantoms' camp in late September to this NHL contract a beat-the-odds type story would be a massive understatement.

After all, a tragic skate cut incident almost ended Hodgson's AHL - and NHL - aspirations before they were even in focus as a possibility.

During the Reading Royals' November 13, 2019 game against the Worcester Railers, Hodgson was cut by a skate on his leg - a cut that was nearly seven inches wide and three inches deep - severing muscles in his leg that hospitalized him for three days and kept him out of game action for nearly two months.

"It was definitely one of the scariest injuries of my life," Hodgson told the Reading Eagle back in January 2020. "I can't really explain how I felt in that moment. I'm just glad to be here."

Shortly following Hodgson's return to game action, the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the remainder of the 2019-20 season. Then, Reading opted out of the 2020-21 season - leaving Hodgson once again looking for a job.

Hodgson eventually joined the ECHL's Wheeling Nailers on January 18, 2021 before later being traded to the Utah Grizzlies a few months later, finishing the season with eight goals and 10 assists in 44 combined games between the Nailers and Grizzlies.

After another summer of uncertainty in free agency, Hodgson signed an ECHL contract and returned to Reading before being a late addition to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms training camp roster this fall on a standard AHL camp tryout.

As they say, the rest is history.

"I'll be honest with you, coming into the season I didn't know who he was," Phantoms' head coach Ian Laperriere told InsideAHLHockey.com earlier this season of Hodgson.

With every passing day, however, Hodgson made it clear he was in camp to earn a spot on the Phantoms' AHL roster. Laperriere became increasingly impressed as the AHL preseason progressed, and Hodgson ended up earning an AHL contract just prior to the start of Lehigh Valley's season in early October.

From there, Hodgson just continued to put in the work.

"Everything hard. That's what I like about him," Laperriere said of Hodgson after a game in early February. "[He does] everything hard, all the little details hard and he's getting rewarded. Like, he's got a contract out of his good habits and he's having a season of his career."

Besides being a wrecking ball on the forecheck, Hodgson developed a scoring touch and took over the team lead in goals at the midway mark of the Phantoms season.

When asked if he thought he'd be leading the team in goal scoring, a confident Hodgson told InsideAHLHockey.com "You know what, that's a good question. I've always...I've always stayed confident myself, I know what I can do. And you know, at this time it's pretty crazy. But you just kind of think about every game, and game by game, and just work upon that."

Hodgson's emergence was noticed by more than the fans in Lehigh Valley and the Phantoms' coaching staff. Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr took notice, and extended Hodgson to a two-year AHL contract that was set to begin with the 2022-23 season to keep him in the organization to continue developing his game at the AHL level with the Phantoms in the coming year.

As he continued to rack up goals, however, teams from around the NHL began drawing interest in Hodgson - forcing the Flyers' hand in signing him to the one-year entry-level contract for the remainder of the 2021-22 season he signed earlier this week. Hodgson has tallied a team-leading 18 goals and 11 assists in 44 games this season to date, his first full season at the AHL level.

"For me, he's a 'Flyers' kind of player," Laperriere said of Hodgson, adding, "He's just getting better every day. And he's getting rewarded too, like, he wasn't on the power play at the beginning a year. And he is now, and he wasn't on the top line. And he is now. And that's what we're trying to build here. If you play the right way, and you play into the structure, you will get rewarded. And he's a perfect example."

On Thursday night in St. Louis, Hodgson will make his long-awaited NHL debut with the Flyers - a true story of hard work and perserverance paying off in a big way.

And if nothing else, it's truly a feel-good story for Flyers fans in what has been an otherwise forgetful season.

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