When the Flyers Alumni Team takes on the Bruins Alumni Team at the Wells Fargo Center on January 26 -- with all proceeds benefiting the Flyers Alumni Association and Flyers Charities -- one of big highlights of the weekend will be the reunion of most of the surviving Alumni of the Flyers' 1973-74 and 1974-75 Stanley Cup winning rosters. Flyers Hall of Fame defenseman Joe Watson, playing his final Alumni Game, will represent those championship teams in the Alumni Game.
Meanwhile, there will be multiple Flyers Alumni playing on Jan. 26 who were previously part of the 1996-97 team or 2009-10 team that won the Eastern Conference Championship on Wells Fargo Center ice (formerly called CoreStates Center, First Union Center and Wachovia Center).
2024 Alumni Game participants Eric Lindros, John LeClair, and Chris Therien were key members of the 1997-98 club. Later, Mike Richards, Kimmo Timonen, Scott Hartnell and goalie Brian Boucher were mainstays on the 2009-10 club. Lindros and Richards captained their respective Flyers teams to the Stanley Cup Finals.
The last two Philadelphia pro hockey teams to win the championship were the Calder Cup winning 1997-98 and 2004-05 editions of the Philadelphia (now Lehigh Valley) Phantoms. The latter team, which won the final game of the playoffs at Wells Fargo Center (then Wachovia Center), did so during the campaign in which a year-long lockout caused the cancellation of the 2004-05 NHL season.
Consequently, the Stanley Cup was not awarded that year. As such, with stocked-up rosters across the American Hockey League, the Calder Cup was arguably the highest prestige trophy awarded by any league worldwide for the 2004-05 season.
Members of the Phantoms' two Calder Cup teams will be well-represented in the upcoming Flyers Alumni Game. Boucher was part of the 1997-98 team as a Phantoms rookie. Head coach Bill Barber will be there on Hall of Fame weekend both as part of the Broad Street Bullies championship reunion and as one of the Flyers' Hall of Famers welcoming Mark Recchi as the newest inductee.
Richards joined the Phantoms for the 2005 Calder Cup playoffs after his final junior season in the Ontario Hockey League was finished. Patrick Sharp had 23 regular season goals and then posted 21 points in 21 Calder Cup playoff games. Defenseman Dennis Seidenberg logged heavy ice time for coach John Stevens' team. Rugged wingers Todd "Fridge" Fedoruk and Riley Cote (in his first season in the organization) supplied toughness and muscle to the second championship team.
To purchase tickets to the 2024 Alumni Game, click here. Tickets to the pre-game VIP reception -- an opportunity to collect autographs and photos, chat and dine alongside all of the participating Flyers Alumni Game players and Cup reunion attendees -- are still available as an add-on option to game ticket purchases.
