LAKE PLACID — Around 20 years ago, Wyatt Friedlander got his first taste of hockey, skating on the Lake Placid Olympic Center ice. Back then, he needed a chair to help hold himself up.
But now, the Lake Placid native is signing autographs for young fans.
Friedlander is now playing semi-pro hockey for the Binghamton Black Bears of the Federal Prospects Hockey League. He signed as one of the team’s goalies in July, and earlier this month, he got his first start in net.
Suffice to say, it went pretty well as he earned the win in the Black Bears’ 7-3 rout over the Watertown Wolves. Friedlander turned away 25 shots and said it was a moment that was hard to describe.
“It was absolutely electric,” he said. “I’ve never really signed autographs or stuff like that and I had fans coming up to me after, like, ‘Hey, can you sign my jersey?’”
For Friedlander, playing professional hockey is a dream come true, and it’s proven to him that his years of hard work have been worth it.
After closing out his college hockey career at Worcester State University last spring, Friedlander had aspirations
to play professional hockey and started trying to connect with people.
“I probably sent out hundreds of emails just reaching out to teams,” he said. “But no one answered.”
But when he returned to his hometown, to work at a summer Can/Am Hockey camp — something he’s done for years — he met with Nick Vitucci, an NHL scout, who scored him a tryout with the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder and Steve Brown, a former NCAA DI coach, who reached out to the Black Bears for him.
“I signed with Binghamton over the summer as a (Professional Tryout),” Friedlander said. “Then after talking with the coach, he allowed me to go to the Adirondack Thunder camp, so that’s kind of how I got my foot in the door.”
Friedlander joined a really solid FPHL team, too. The Black Bears won the Commissioners Cup — the league crown — in back-to-back seasons. Friedlander said, right now, he’s just trying to learn from the team’s starter, Connor McAnanama, who was named playoff MVP last season.
“I’m coming into a team that’s really good and basically has the best goalie in the league,” he said. “So, I’m most likely not going to get the most amount of games, but it’s something where I can develop from this guy, who is an MVP.”
Friedlander has always learned to take advice from some elite goalies. Back in 2011, he recalled when the Boston Bruins came to Lake Placid for a mini training camp ahead of the NHL playoffs and he met a then-younger goaltender, Tuuka Rask.
“He was about to get in his car, and I asked a question. I was like, ‘Do you have one piece of advice for a young goalie?’” he said. “He just looked at me and said, ‘Stop the puck kid.’ Ever since then, I’ve thought it was sick, because goaltending in it of itself is a pretty simple task at hand, but it’s good to see it from his perspective.”
Friedlander doesn’t exactly know when he first switched over to a goalie, but it was during his youth hockey days in Lake Placid. He said his mother, Trish, didn’t really want him to play in goal.
“(She) was like, ‘Yeah, it costs too much,’ or ‘You’re gonna get hit with the puck’ and stuff like that,” he said. “But it was something I wanted to do.”
After making the switch full-time, Friedlander later spent three years of prep school at the Northwood School in Lake Placid. He then went on to play junior hockey for the Springfield Jr. Pics in the USPHL Premier before switching to NCAA DIII hockey.
For Friedlander, college was a grind and a massive change in pace.
“It was faster and everybody was smarter,” he said. “It was an adjustment for sure, but every time you have to adjust, it’s a chance for improvement.”
In his four years with Worcester State, Friedlander finished with a 17-15-2 record, including two shutouts in his senior season, a .917 save percentage and a 3.26 goals allowed average. He credited his two coaches — Bob Deraney and Jay Punsky — with helping improve his game.
“(They) believed in me and gave me those games and by the end of my senior year, I was a starter,” Friedlander said.