14th year goaltender Rob Zepp(72) has taken quite the path to signing his first NHL deal over 10 years after he inked his last one with draft team Carolina Hurricanes.
He was selected, for a second time, in the 4th round of 2001 (#110 overall) after his initial pick in again the 4th round of 1999 by Atlanta Thrashers (#99 overall), but was never signed by the team before being returned to the draft pool.
The back stop played in the ‘Canes‘ system for four years mostly reassigned down to Florida Everblades of the ECHL with only 7 AHL games with the long gone Lowell Lock Monsters.
After a one-year extension, he decided he’d had enough of North American hockey and split for a pair of stints in Finland’s Liiga with SaiPa.
From there the 6’1″ 195 lbs. net minder moved to Germany’s elite league DEL coming to terms with Eisbaren Berlin Polar Bears and his game started to take off.
He stayed with the team for seven seasons, playing over 40 games each year, 50 in 2009/2010, 5 league Championships and was named European Best Goalie twice (2011, 2013).
With his stellar play he was definitely getting noticed back home but it was in the lockout shortened 2012/2013, when a pair of Philadelphia Flyers‘ players joined him for a brief spell that conversations about bringing him back really started to gain traction.
The 33-year old signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Flyers for 2014/2015 that had will likely have him play in his first regular season NHL game but most of his time should be spent in between the pipes for affiliate Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
In 8 games he’s already making an argument for recall going 5-2-1 with a 2.75 GAA and .910 SV%.
This follows an impressive training camp, where there were murmurs that he could easily steal the back-up job but for now he provides great insight as a mentor for their rookie in the minors and may even turn goaltending coach when he decided to hang up the skates.