The Philadelphia Phantoms were a professional ice hockey team that played in the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1996 to 2009. The club was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and played most of its home games at the Spectrum. During schedule conflicts or some Calder Cup playoff games, games were moved to the adjacent Wachovia Center. The Phantoms won two Calder Cup titles (1998 and 2005) during their tenure in Philadelphia.
In anticipation of the planned closure and demolition of the Spectrum, the franchise was sold in early 2009. The new owners moved the club to Glens Falls, New York, for the 2009–10 season and renamed them the Adirondack Phantoms. Beginning in the 2014–15 season, the team moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, in a new 8,500-seat arena, the PPL Center.
History The Phantoms were the fourth AHL franchise to call Philadelphia home, following the Ramblers/Rockets (1936–1942), Rockets (1946–1949), and Firebirds (1977–1979).
Predecessor AHL clubs in Philadelphia
When the Canadian–American Hockey League (1926–36) and original International Hockey League (1929–36) began playing an interlocking schedule in 1936–37 as the International-American Hockey League, the then defending "Can-Am" champion Philadelphia Ramblers (née Philadelphia Arrows) became one of the new combined circuit's eight original member clubs. After two seasons of interlocking play, the two leagues formally merged on June 28, 1938, and the circuit renamed itself the American Hockey League in 1940. By 1942, however, that original Philadelphia franchise (which was renamed the "Rockets" in 1941 after losing its affiliation with the New York Rangers) fell on hard times and permanently suspended operations.
The AHL's next two tries in Philadelphia were made in 1946 by a new Philadelphia Rockets (1946–49) and again in 1977 by the NAHL refugee Philadelphia Firebirds (1977–1979), but neither team met with much longevity or on-ice success. The 1946–47 Rockets in fact still hold the AHL mark for fewest wins in a season at five on a record of 5–52–7. The AHL's dismal record in the city all changed, however, with the establishment in 1996 of a fourth AHL club in the city, the Phantoms, which went on to win a pair of Calder Cup titles (1998, 2005) during its thirteen-season run.
The Flyers bring the AHL back to Philadelphia For the 12 seasons (1984–96) prior to the Phantoms' founding, the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Philadelphia Flyers had maintained a highly-successful affiliation with the AHL's oldest franchise, the Hershey Bears, which included a Calder Cup title in 1988. In September 1996, however, the Flyers left their long-time home arena, the Spectrum, and moved across the parking lot into the soon-to-be-completed CoreStates Center. Instead of demolishing the Spectrum, Comcast Spectacor, the owner of both arenas as well as the Flyers, elected to keep it open and active, but doing so would require a tenant to fill the 80 to 100 NHL and National Basketball Association (NBA) dates the Spectrum would lose to the CoreStates Center.
To help achieve this end, the Flyers purchased an AHL expansion franchise in December 1995 which would begin operation in the 1996–97 season. A few weeks later, it was announced that the new team would be named the Philadelphia Phantoms and be coached by Hall of Famer and former Flyer winger Bill Barber, assisted by veteran ex-Bear and Flyer defenseman Mike Stothers. This was the same tandem who were then coaching the Flyers' prospects in Hershey.
Early success The Phantoms played their first ever regular season game on October 4, 1996, defeating the Springfield Falcons 6–3 in Springfield. The franchise's first goal was scored by defenseman John Stevens, the team's first captain (who had, coincidentally, scored the first goal in Falcons' history as that team's first captain). The club made its Spectrum debut two days later on October 6 before an enthusiastic crowd of 9,166 which saw them defeat the visiting Rochester Americans 3–1 in the first regular season AHL game played in Philadelphia since the departure of the Philadelphia Firebirds in 1979. By season's end, the Phantoms had compiled a 49–18–3–10 record for a League-best 111 points, ten more than second overall Hershey's 101. Center Peter White captured the Sollenberger Trophy as the AHL's top scorer with 105 points while center Vaclav Prospal finished fourth overall in the League with 95 despite having been called up to the Flyers with 17 games left in the season.
After defeating the Baltimore Bandits in three games in the opening round of their first-ever playoffs, the Phantoms then met their now already archrivals, the Hershey Bears, in a best-of-seven second round set. After losing the opening game 5–3, the Phantoms evened the series with a 7–4 victory in the second game which featured, among other things, 350 minutes in penalties (171 to the Phantoms), 14 game misconducts, a pair of suspensions, a fight in which goaltender Neil Little knocked-out Bears' backup goaltender Sinuhe Wallinheimo and the appearance of five goalies (Jean-Francois Labbe, Wallinheimo and Sylvain Rodrigue for Hershey; Little and Dominic Roussel for Philadelphia). After dropping Game 6 with a score of 3–2 at Hershey that ended when Blair Atcheynum slipped the Bears' 57th shot of the night (and the 121st overall by both teams) behind Little on a breakaway at :42 of the third overtime, the Phantoms' first season came to an end when Hershey edged them again, 3–2, in Game 7 at the Spectrum three nights later on May 14. (Hershey went on to win their eighth Calder Cup title a few weeks later.)
1998: Philadelphia's first Calder Cup
As in their inaugural season, the Phantoms again finished first overall in 1997–98 with 106 points on a record of 47–21–2–10, and again Peter White took home the Sollenberger Trophy as the league's top scorer with another 105-point season. Sell-out crowds of 17,380 also packed the Spectrum eight times during the regular season schedule with a total season attendance of 472,392, and over 100,000 more attended the club’s home Calder Cup games during which the Phantoms played and defeated the Rochester Americans, Hershey Bears, Albany River Rats and Saint John Flames.
A crowd of 17,380 (the club's ninth sell-out of the year) filled the Spectrum on the evening of June 10, 1998, for Game 6 of the finals that saw the Phantoms play a virtually flawless contest as they defeated the Flames 6–1 behind the stellar goaltending of Neil Little, who had allowed just 48 post-season goals on his way to a 15–5 playoff record. Winger Mike Maneluk earned the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the playoff MVP while also being the League's leading post-season scorer with 34 points (13 goals and 21 assists). Team captain John Stevens (who had also won Calder Cups with Hershey in 1988 and Springfield in 1991, and would coach the Phantoms to another title in 2005) and his teammates paraded the Calder Cup around the same ice as the Flyers had skated their first Stanley Cup 24 years earlier.
1999 AHL All Star game On January 24, 1999, the Phantoms hosted the 1999 AHL All-Star Game before a crowd of 14,120 at the then First Union (now Wells Fargo) Center. Philadelphia defenseman Serhiy Klymentiev, center Richard Park and goaltender Jean-Marc Pelletier all skated for the PlanetUSA team in that game, while centers Peter White and Jim Montgomery joined Head Coach Bill Barber and Assistant Coach Mike Stothers on the Canadian squad for which White also served as captain. Pelletier won the game’s MVP award with his outstanding period of work for PlanetUSA in their 5–4 win over Barber's Canadian squad.
The Phantoms continued to draw fans through the turnstiles at a prodigious rate in 1998–99 as they drew a then-franchise single game attendance record of 19,532 at the First Union Center on February 28, 1999, to see the Phantoms and the Kentucky Thoroughblades skate to a 3–3 draw. With a capacity crowd of 17,380 at the Spectrum on April 11 to watch the Phantoms conclude their home schedule against the Hershey Bears, the club established an AHL-best overall single season attendance record of 480,106 for an average of 12,002 fans per game.
Coaches With Head Coach Bill Barber's promotion to the Flyers after the 1999–2000 season as an assistant (and later head) coach, Assistant Coach John Stevens—who had been forced to retire as a player the previous season because of a serious eye injury—became the second head coach of the Phantoms in June 2000. Stevens, the team's first captain, was soon joined by two more former Flyer players, defenseman Kjell Samuelsson and winger Don Nachbaur, to complete the new staff. In November 2003, long-time NHL tough guy and former Flyer left wing Craig Berube signed with the Phantoms to finish his 18-year professional career back in Philadelphia as a player/assistant coach. At the end of that season, he retired as a player to become a full-time assistant coach for the 2004–05 campaign, replacing Nachbaur, who had since returned to the Western Hockey League (WHL) as head coach of the Tri-City Americans.
While it may have only been a coincidence, not long after signing Berube, the Phantoms and Binghamton Senators combined for 373 penalty minutes in a 5–1 Senators' win at the Spectrum on December 28, 2003, to establish new club records for most penalties in minutes (PIM), with 210, combined PIM and even an individual team mark set by Peter Vandermeer with 44 PIM. After 11 fights and 15 game misconducts, the game was called with eight seconds remaining due to a lack of enough remaining players on each team. When John Stevens was promoted to the Flyers as an assistant coach after the 2005–06 season, Berube was named the Phantoms' third head coach in June 2006. After Stevens was promoted to Flyers head coach, Berube left the Phantoms to join Stevens' staff as an assistant coach. Samuelsson, a Phantoms' assistant coach for six seasons, was named the fourth head coach in Phantoms history on October 23, 2006, and two-time Stanley Cup winner Joe Mullen, a 2000 inductee in Hockey Hall of Fame and former teammate of Samuelsson's with the Pittsburgh Penguins, joined the club as his assistant coach. Berube returned to the Phantoms as head coach again with the 2007–08 season (and Samuelsson to associate coach) while Mullen joined former Phantoms' mentor John Stevens with the Flyers as an assistant coach for the NHL club. Berube himself joined the Flyers' coaching staff in 2008 and was replaced behind the Phantoms' bench by former Flyer winger John Paddock, a five-time Calder Cup winner as a player (two times) and coach (three times), including with the 1987–88 Hershey Bears when that team was the Flyers' AHL affiliate.
A goalie scores – shorthanded and in OT The Phantoms clinched the F. G. (Teddy) Oke Trophy as the AHL's East Division 2003–04 regular-season champion with a 0–0 tie in Bridgeport on April 10 for its fourth division title and 13th shutout of the season. (The previous franchise record for shutouts was just five.) The following night the club ended the regular season by completing its improbable 12–0 season sweep in games of the rival Hershey Bears with a bizarre 3–2 overtime victory at the Giant Center in Hershey. Goalie Antero Niittymaki was credited with the game-winner on a shorthanded, empty-net goal 2:32 into the extra session, making him the first-ever Phantom goaltender to "score" a goal. (Needing a win to make the playoffs, the Bears pulled their goaltender during an overtime power-play and inadvertently directed the puck in their own net. As the last Phantom to touch the puck, Niittymaki was credited with the goal.)
2005: A second Calder Cup