Sharp’s AHL Resume Suiting Him Well in New Role
Former Phantom Reflects on AHL Career and Current Position with Flyers Organization
By Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
February 23, 2026
Long before he won three Stanley Cups, played 939 regular-season games, captured an Olympic gold medal, made the cover of Chicago magazine, or went into broadcasting, Patrick Sharp knew the American Hockey League.
Now more than 20 years later, Sharp is learning the AHL again from a different vantage point.
Chosen in the third round of the 2001 NHL Draft by the Philadelphia Flyers, Sharp played two seasons at the University of Vermont before joining the AHL’s Philadelphia Phantoms in the fall of 2002.
He was still just 20, and it showed. His rookie season was solid enough, notching 14 goals with the Phantoms and getting into three NHL games with the Flyers. But a long and successful career was no sure bet.
That second season, though, Sharp started to look like someone who could have a strong NHL future. He picked up 15 goals and 29 points in just 35 games with the Phantoms, played 41 regular-season games for the parent team, and skated in 12 more postseason contests – mainly getting limited fourth-line minutes – as the Flyers reached the conference finals.
The NHL lockout of 2004-05 may have been the best thing for Sharp.
Back with the Phantoms, Sharp became a top-level contributor, notching 52 points in 75 games and earning a selection to the AHL All-Star Classic. And by the time the Calder Cup Playoffs arrived, he took on a starring role. It was a time of transition for the entire Philadelphia organization, with first-round picks Jeff Carter and Mike Richards joining the AHL club in time to join Sharp in dominating the postseason. In a sweep-ending Game 4 win over the Chicago Wolves on June 10, 2005, Sharp scored twice, added an assist and lifted the Calder Cup in front of a league playoff-record crowd of 20,103 fans at what is now known as Xfinity Mobile Arena in South Philly.
Speaking in Rockford, where he was selected to serve as an honorary captain at the 2026 AHL All-Star Classic this month, Sharp called the Phantoms’ championship “a huge part in my development.”
In December 2005, Sharp became a key piece in a trade that helped spark the rebuild of the Chicago Blackhawks. He would go on to win Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015, earn MVP honors at the 2011 NHL All-Star Game, and capture a gold medal with Canada at the Sochi Olympics in 2014.
Now, all these years later, Sharp’s work with the Flyers organization has resumed. He wrapped up his playing career in 2018 and spent two seasons back at his alma mater before returning to the Flyers in 2023 as a special advisor of hockey operations. Part of that job description involves getting on the ice and showing today’s Flyers hopefuls in Lehigh Valley or ECHL Reading just how it’s done.
“I love it,” Sharp said. “I love being around the players. I’m learning a lot from the coaching staff, both the Flyers and the Phantoms, and I have the most fun on the ice with the kids in a tracksuit. I still wish I had my gear on.”
After a quick start this season, Lehigh Valley lost 11 of 13 games before sweeping a pair of games in Hershey this past weekend. With 50 points, they are trying to climb the Atlantic Division standings while also keeping their pursuers far enough behind. Some nights, it looks like many Phantoms are NHL-ready. Other nights, their inexperience shows.
So it goes in prospect development. It was a lesson that Sharp had to learn more than two decades ago, and it’s a message that as a 44-year-old he tries to pass on to the Philadelphia organization’s youngsters today.
“Not every player gets drafted and steps right into the NHL,” Sharp said. “The majority of the guys need some time to develop and take those steps professionally both on and off the ice. For me, leaving the University of Vermont as some lazy college kid, I learned how to take care of myself off the ice, become a professional every day. I learned how to find that competitiveness in me.”
Sharp’s head coach as a prospect in Philadelphia was AHL Hall of Famer John Stevens, who has gone on to spend 20 years behind NHL benches after long playing and coaching careers in the AHL. It was Stevens, Sharp says, who delivered some of the mentorship – and tough love – that a young prospect like him needed.
“He was hard on me,” Sharp said. “He put in a lot of time to get me better. I think he saw something in my game that he could pull out, and I’m thankful. (There were) a lot of hard conversations and tough days at the rink, but at the end of the day my final game in the American League I was hoisting the Calder Cup over my head because of a lot of things that John Stevens taught me and taught our team.”
Today’s Phantoms are trying to learn those same lessons. Part of Sharp’s role today reflects the significant upgrades and resources that NHL organizations put into their AHL affiliates now. Players today are able to get the one-on-one teaching and guidance for a particular part of the game from someone like Sharp to complement the rest of the coaching staff’s work.
“‘Patience’ would be a keyword,” Sharp said of his message to those prospects. “Belief. Belief in yourself and your abilities that it’s all going to work out. Be ready for your opportunities…You never know when they’re going to come.
“That’s what we tell our guys in Lehigh all the time. You can tell they got one foot out the door ready to get to that NHL level, but I’ve seen players go up and then not be ready for that experience. So my job with the player development staff is to prepare our guys as best that I can to be ready for that next step.
“But belief is the biggest thing. Believe in yourself, believe in all the hard work that you’re putting in that it’s going to pay off one day.”
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