Willman's Journey 2/4/2020

ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania - It's been quite a month for Lehigh Valley Phantoms forward Max Willman after joining the Philadelphia Flyers' AHL affiliate on a professional tryout contract (PTO) on December 19th. The Phantoms announced Tuesday they've signed Willman to a standard player contract for the remainder of the 2019-20 season.

It's also been quite a remarkable journey for Willman to make it to professional hockey, given that he has seemingly been overlooked every step of the way.

"Just playing public high school hockey in Massachussetts on the Cape, [I] didn't really have any looks at college hockey," Willman explained to InsideAHLHockey.com during the team's recent five-game homestand, adding that he opted for a year of prep school in hopes of getting more exposure.

The year at Williston Northampton School certainly paid off in spades for Willman, who captained the team and was able to springboard a tremendous showing (44 points in 25 games) into a commitment from Brown University for four years. Willman was also selected in the fifth round of the 2014 NHL Draft by the Buffalo Sabres, though the Sabres never signed him while they had his rights.

A devastating ACL injury early on in his senior season at Brown saw Willman able to execute a graduate transfer for a fifth year of NCAA hockey at Boston University (BU) last season, where he was a teammate of current Philadelphia Flyers forward Joel Farabee.

After his season with BU saw him amass a goal and five assists in 36 games, Willman was once again on the outside looking in when it came to the initial stages of breaking into the professional ranks of the hockey world.

His agent spent the summer working the phones, hoping to find Willman a place to play for the 2019-20 season.

"Basically, It kind of got to the point where I was just looking to go anywhere and play," Willman recalled.

He had to wait until the first week of September, but that's when Reading Royals head coach Kirk MacDonald came calling. And the rest is history.

Willman tallied five goals and 10 assists in 16 games this season with ECHL Reading prior to his promotion to the AHL on a PTO, but it wasn't smooth sailing for Willman from the onset. In fact, Willman was a healthy scratch for 10 of the team's first 11 games before becoming a point-per-game player in the ECHL in mid-November.

"It felt a lot longer than that," Willman said in a 1-on-1 with InsideAHLHockey.com. "It was definitely frustrating coming in and not playing right away, but just biding my time, kept working at it and finally got an opportunity, and kind of made the most of it."

Making the most of his opportunities seems to be a trait that followed Willman along his journey in the game of hockey.

While taking a few games to get adjusted to the AHL, Willman stepped in at a time where the Phantoms - and Flyers organization in general - were overwhelmed with injuries and call ups at the forward position.

Despite the organization getting healthy, Willman has stuck around with the Phantoms - who have seen forwards Steven Swavely, Matthew Strome and Gerry Fitzgerald all loaned to ECHL Reading.

Willman made the most of the Phantoms' five-game homestand in the middle of January, where he tallied his first career AHL goal January 15th against Syracuse and a few nights later blasted a shot bar-down from the right wing off the rush in the final game of the homestand - sparking confidence in his game and seeing him go on to tally five points in six games.

Perhaps a surprise visit from his girlfriend during the homestand was all he needed to break through offensively.

Gretchen Geraghty, a rising star in her own right, started a fashion YouTube channel while at Boston University that is now nearing a half-million subscribers. She posted several videos of her surprise visit to Allentown, and regularly posts videos of her daily life - including her boyfriend Max.

After the Phantoms' homestand, Willman made a homecoming of sorts when Lehigh Valley was in Providence for two games prior to the AHL All-Star break. In his first game "back" in the area, Willman - in front of a reported 20+ family/friends - tallied two assists.