PHILADELPHIA, PA – JANUARY 19: Shayne Gostisbehere #53 of the Philadelphia Flyers celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the third period at Wells Fargo Center on January 19, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
It was a salary cap dump by Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher to give the Flyers more space to work with for any potential trades or signings in free agency.
When he was recalled in 2014-15 for two games, I was so excited and was glued to my television watching him play against Detroit and Los Angeles before being sent back to Lehigh Valley.
He had immediately breathed new life into a team struggling to find any rhythm under a new head coach who was guiding a roster that most pundits in the nation had missing the postseason.
Seeing him speed up the middle of the ice like a white and orange cheetah and catching the Maple Leafs defense napping to score the overtime winner on James Reimer was a moment where I was absolutely elated and screamed with so much joy.
My dad and I made the 4-hour drive from Syracuse and saw Ghost and the Flyers take on the New Jersey Devils on January 21st, 2017 at Wells Fargo Center, one year to the day that I got his jersey.
He didn’t score but you could just see the smooth skating and offensive aggression in his game reappear from two seasons prior, and that made me happy that my favorite defenseman found his game again.
Truth be told, I wore my Connor Ingram Crunch jersey when I entered the old War Memorial, but I took it off in the third period and cheered on Shayne and the Phantoms, leaving the building in my Flyers hoodie instead.
I brought one of my jerseys with me, the plain orange and white #53 that my mom had given me four years earlier, in the hopes that Shayne would stop by and sign it after the game.
I suppose it’s only fitting that my last time seeing him ended the same way it began, in a fashion of a three-goal embarrassment to the rivals up the Turnpike.
Shayne and Gina have been an integral part of making Philadelphia a great place to live and have been prime examples of what it means to be involved in the community and it is another area in which he’ll be missed.
You better believe I’ll be getting his Arizona sweater and will be down at Wells Fargo Center when he makes his return to the city he called home for seven seasons.