From West Point to beer league and everywhere in between, Phantoms goalie Parker Gahagen has never given up on his hockey dream

ALLENTOWN — Parker Gahagen was athletic but controlled as he made save after save in Lehigh Valley’s 3-2 win against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins last Friday in the Calder Cup playoffs.

When you pull up the 31-year-old netminder’s bio and your eyes trace through his long hockey career, it becomes clear why he is such a tactician.

Call him Capt. Parker Gahagen.

Growing up in Western New York, Gahagen wasn’t in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) or surrounded by the military. But he was looking for an opportunity to play hockey and set himself up postcollege with a career. The two are now intertwined because after snagging the starter spot halfway through his freshman year at West Point, Gahagen had a light bulb moment two seasons later.

» READ MORE: Flyers prospect Jett Luchanko showing ‘why he was a high pick’ with impressive run in AHL playoffs

“Went to West Point in 2013 [and] the first years were fine, and then my junior year, I think just kind of made a big step,” he said while sitting in a locker room in the bowels of the PPL Center in Allentown. “Had a goalie coach [volunteer Ryan Hull] who came in, and I just kind of clicked with him. My game kind of improved, and I was able to have my last two years above average. So I was able to kind of get an opportunity to play pro, which wasn’t exactly at the forefront of my mind going into college, but given the opportunity, it was something I wanted to pursue.”

After going 3-10-0 in 16 appearances as a freshman and 6-15-3 in 25 games as a sophomore, Gahagen played all 34 contests in his third season for the Black Knights. He went 14-11-0, led NCAA men’s hockey in save percentage (.937), and posted the second-best goals-against average in the program’s history (2.01).

His senior year was even better, as he led Army to its second straight AHA semifinal while posting a 2.00 GAA and .934 save percentage. He was subsequently named a semifinalist for the Mike Richter Award, handed out to the best goalie in men’s college hockey.

“I have so much respect for guys like that that serve, West Point graduate,” Phantoms coach Ian Laperrière said. ”He’s everything you want in a good teammate. He was our third goalie when [Aleksei] Kolosov was here, and always had a smile on his face."

But Gahagen’s road to being named the Phantoms’ postseason starter included a few more speed bumps.

Upon graduation from West Point, cadets must serve in the Army. The policy allowed potential pro athletes to do eight years in the reserves instead of five years of active duty service and three years as a reserve. But right before Gahagen graduated, the policy was changed, and he owed two years of active duty before he could pursue a hockey career — and he had to turn down an entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks.

So Gahagen headed off to basic officer training and, after completion, he signed an Amateur Tryout Agreement with the San Jose Barracuda of the American Hockey League in November 2017.

» READ MORE: Phantoms coach Ian Laperrière is in playoff mode, but he’d like a shot at the Flyers’ coaching job

At the time, Gahagen was trying to make the 2018 U.S. Olympic team and was in the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, which grants elite soldier-athletes the opportunity to train for the Olympics while maintaining their military career. The first team-sport athlete to be awarded the status, under military restrictions, Gahagen was permitted to sign ATOs or player tryout agreements, but not a professional contract.

He played five games, went 2-2-0 with a .847 save percentage for the Barracuda, and did not make the Olympic roster. So on Valentine’s Day in 2018, he was shipped to Colorado and joined the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, where he received two Army Commendation medals. But don’t let that “Did Not Play” for 2018-19 on his Elite Prospects page fool you.

Meet Parker Gahagen, beer league goalie.

“When I got to my unit at Fort Carson, they were getting ready for deployment, so it was a lot of long days,” he recalled. “There was definitely a commitment, but it was a little bit more of a sense of normalcy; you’re working all these hours, helping prep the units for deployment, and just doing stuff like that. So I think it was like a little bit of release.”

Yep, a guy with AHL games under his belt was like you and me, suiting up at 9 p.m. — or later — in the middle of the week to get a game in. For approximately 18 months, he was playing against guys with college experience, but as someone who had higher expectations, as he said with a laugh, “If you ever do get scored on, I think it almost hurts a little bit more.”

Once the next Olympic cycle began, Gahagen was back in the Army’s World Class Athlete Program and off active duty. But finding a pro team to play with was difficult after missing time. He played a handful of games in the Southern Professional Hockey League, an independent minor league, with the Evansville Thunderbolts, and then got picked up by the Newfoundland Growlers of the ECHL. In 15 games there, he went 10-4-0 with a 1.81 GAA and .939 save percentage.

From 2019 to 2023, Gahagen had stints with the Thunderbolts (SPHL), Growlers (ECHL), Toronto Marlies (AHL), Utah Grizzlies (ECHL), Colorado Eagles (AHL), Milwaukee Admirals (AHL), Florida Everblades (ECHL), Hartford Wolfpack (AHL), and Jacksonville Icemen (ECHL), without spending a full season in a single spot. Last year, he split the season between the Phantoms and Reading Royals.

“I know when the two of us spoke last year, Parker and I, he was just excited about the opportunity to be given some AHL action. And then that continued this year,” Flyers assistant general manager Alyn McCauley said. “Just the way he carries himself on and off the ice, the professionalism, the hard work, the attitude, probably more than anything, he’s just got a great energy to him.”

Gahagen has seized that opportunity.

Last season, he went 10-4-0 with a 2.28 GAA and .936 save percentage for Reading and 7-8-3 with a 2.59 GAA and .914 save percentage for Lehigh Valley. This season, across a few stints with the Royals, he went 4-5-1 with a 2.69 GAA and .902 save percentage. In 22 regular-season games with the Phantoms, he went 12-4-4 in 22 games with a 2.39 GAA and .916 save percentage.

And in three playoff games, he has an eye-opening .933 save percentage. Remember that series clincher against the Baby Pens? He stopped 31 of 33 shots, including several standout kick saves and a flashy glove snag in the second period. Behind 19 saves on 20 shots from Gahagen on Friday night, the Phantoms evened up their second-round playoff series with Hershey, 1-1. Game 3 of the best-of-five series is scheduled for Sunday evening in Allentown.

It’s not a surprise that from Dec. 28 through the first- round clincher, he went 13-3-1 with a 1.93 GAA and .933 save percentage and was voted co-MVP with Olle Lycksell by his teammates.

All that came after he started as the No. 4 goalie for the Phantoms.

“For Parker, I think everyone has the same feeling about Parker and that he’s earned it,” added McCauley. “He’s somebody who carries himself a certain way, approaches, probably life in general, a certain way. And you’re always happy for those people to succeed and have what he has right now. I know sometimes it’s probably overused that good things happen to good people, but he falls into that category for sure.”

“He’s a competitor. You want to talk about guys that go through adversity, a military guy [and what he’s been through], this is nothing. This is a game. He’s not perfectly technical … but his biggest quality is, he’s a battler,” Laperrière said.

It’s his battling that has propelled him to the top spot on the Phantoms’ depth chart ahead of three goalies with NHL experience in Cal Petersen, Eetu Mäkiniemi, and Kolosov. Thirty-one isn’t far-off a goalie’s prime either, and Gahagen, who was honorably discharged from active duty in 2022 and remains in the reserves, gives credit to his time at West Point for building a deep love for the game that he is trying to pass on to the young netminders in the Flyers system.

“When I was at the rink, I think that’s what kind of gave me a bigger appreciation for hockey,” Gahagen said. “You go throughout your day, you have all these classes, you’re surrounded by the whole military culture the whole day, and then once you get to the rink, I felt like hockey was almost like a release, or just gave me a greater appreciation for the game.”

The question is, is the NHL next? While the odds might still be against Gahagen, it’s hard to bet against someone who has gone through so much just to reach this point.

Oh, and the Flyers could use a veteran backup.

» READ MORE: The Flyers have a major goalie problem (again) and there’s no ready-made fix out there in free agency