Click here to read the full release on Anderson from KHL Medvescak Zagreb's site
Patrick Bordeleau and Mike Kostka have company.
Bordeleau's circuitous trip to the NHL--he played for five teams in 2008-09--has been an interesting side story of the early season. At 26, he's playing on the Colorado Avalanche's first line. The 27-year-old Kostka has emerged as an everyday defenseman for the Toronto Maple Leafs and currently is playing alongside captain Dion Phaneuf.
New Jersey Devils winger Matt Anderson has them beat.
Anderson, set to play in his first NHL game tonight, is 30--that's too old to qualify for rookie status at all. He got the callup from AHL Albany over the weekend.
"It was pretty surreal," Anderson told the Bergen Record (where there's much more of his story). "It's a phone call you always hope that you get. You think about it and you think how it would happen and I always said to myself, I'd never expect it. It would be at the least expected time."
He's in Boston, where the Devils play the Bruins on Tuesday.
After an injury-filled college career ended in 2007, Anderson signed as an undrafted free agent with the Chicago Wolves. Then came an AHL deal with Albany in 2010, a strong 2010-11 season in which he had 23 goals and 32 assists, and then a two-way NHL contract with the Devils. Now, it's 2013, and he's finally getting his chance.
When you're a rookie, they tell you to act like you've been there before.
Matt Anderson's not exactly a rookie, and he has been here before, although it's been a long time.
The 30-year-old West Islip, N.Y., native made his NHL debut Tuesday with the New Jersey Devils, who fell in a shootout to the Boston Bruins. It was the culmination of a very long journey for Anderson, coming more than six years after he began his pro career.
Since graduating from UMass in 2007, Anderson played with three different pro teams - the AHL's Chicago Wolves, the Gwinnett Gladiators of the ECHL, and for the last two-and-a-half years back in the AHL with the Albany Devils. He has had his greatest success as a pro in Albany, racking up 40 goals and 106 points in 171 games, and in 2010-11 had a career best 23 goals and 32 assists in 76 games.
Still, a nice minor league career isn't really what a player dreams of when he becomes a professional. It's all about getting the call - or in Anderson's case, the text message. That text came Monday. While Anderson was enjoying the AHL All-Star break in Southern Vermont with some friends, he was having some trouble keeping his cell phone charged.
"There was one charger, one of those Bose docks, at the house where we were staying, and I stuck it on there," he said. "Me and my buddies were about to leave the house, and it came on, and there was a text from [Albany GM] Chris Lamoriello, saying to call him as soon as possible."
Lamoriello, the son of New Jersey GM Lou Lamoriello (Providence, R.I.), had good news: The big club was calling Anderson up, and just in time for the UMass grad to come back to Boston.
Read more: Former Minuteman Anderson makes long-awaited NHL debut
Proving that good things eventually will come to those who wait, winger Matt Anderson made his NHL debut at 30 on Tuesday night.
The forward was called up by the New Jersey Devils on Monday after he had spent his entire pro career in the minors.
"The longer you wait, the more you appreciate it," he said during the between-periods interview on MSG Plus.
Anderson went undrafted out the University of Massachusetts after a college career in which he missed the 2003-04 season with a shoulder injury and was limited to 18 games the following season by a broken ankle.
He had signed minor league deals with the Chicago Wolves and the Albany (N.Y.) Devils. But after scoring 55 points in 2010-11, New Jersey signed him to a two-year, two-way deal last season.
Anderson had 20 points in 39 games this season with Albany. He played Tuesday night on the Devils' fourth line. One of his shifts was cut short because a fight broke out between the Devils' Krys Barch and the Boston Bruins' Shawn Thornton, but he finished with 11 shifts, 6 minutes, 57 seconds of ice time and one blocked shot.
Read more: Matt Anderson makes NHL debut at age 30 for Devils
Anderson, 28, enters his second season with the organization after leading Albany (AHL) with 32 assists and 55 points last season, while finishing second with 23 goals. He also represented the team at the 2011 AHL All-Star Classic. The 5-11, 195-lb. forward originally signed with the club on July 21, 2010 after spending the previous three-plus seasons with Chicago (AHL). Anderson was a member of the Wolves' 2008 Calder Cup Championship team. Born October 31, 1982, the native of West Islip, NY signed with Chicago as a free agent on March 30, 2007. He also saw action in 37 games with Gwinnett (ECHL) in 2007-08. Anderson played four seasons at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (HE) between 2002-03 and 2006-07.
