Hayden Hodgson didn’t quite make it to the NHL as quickly as former teammate Connor McDavid, his good friend from junior who lived across the street from him while the pair played for the Erie Otters.
He also lagged behind current Ottawa teammate Kurtis MacDermid by a handful of years, who interestingly ended up in his former billet home after he was traded away and MacDermid was brought into Erie in the span of a few days in January 2014.
Everyone’s path to the NHL is different, of course, and Hayden Hodgson is one of the outliers who refused to give up hope while facing long odds. Hodgson went undrafted and spent parts of four seasons riding busses in the ECHL before making his NHL debut in March of 2022 with Philadelphia.
Just under four years later, he’s still played just 15 NHL games but is making the most of the opportunity that awaits him right now with Ottawa, where he signed a two-year, two-way contract this past offseason after getting into a pair of those games last season.
Hodgson said that it was conversations with general manager Steve Staios and head coach Travis Green at the end of last season that led to him feeling comfortable in the organization and eager to sign a multi-year contract.
“It made me hungry,” said Hodgson about his time in Ottawa in April of last season, where he got into a pair of games with the Sens, his first in the NHL in two-and-a-half years.
Hodgson has really embraced doing whatever it takes and playing whatever role he is assigned in his effort to become a full-time big leaguer. He makes that clear when you ask the 6-foot-2, 221-pound power forward about persevering to find a path to the NHL.
It’s well known that most NHL players, even the ones that don’t often show up on the score sheet, were top scorers in junior and sometimes also the minor leagues. Hodgson is no different.
He led his minor midget team in scoring, the Saginaw Spirit in scoring in his last year in the OHL, and in his second full season in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, he scored 19 goals, good enough for second on the team despite only playing 46 games.
Hodgson was still chasing NHL deployment, though, and so he focused on the parts of his game that were already present which would help him stick.
“I think even when I was younger, I was in a top six role, but I always had that part of my game, that sandpaper to my game,” said Hodgson.
“I could fight, I could forecheck, I could skate for a big guy. Whatever keeps me in the NHL is what I’ll do and what I’m willing to do, so I’m right at home on the fourth line or the bottom six.”
As for his more recent results in the AHL, the penalty minutes (182) have an early lead on the points (seven) through 53 games with Belleville these past two seasons, but Hodgson has never been more confident in what he can bring to the table.
“I think I was just finding my game,” said Hodgson. “Finding my game, finding my role, knowing what makes me feel good out there, knowing what makes me effective, I think that’s the biggest part. I’m a bigger guy, and maybe that [meant] the speed took a bit longer to come, but I feel good out there.”
Hodgson has played six games in the NHL since being called up in mid-November, racking up 18 hits in just over 38 minutes of game play, a lot of them of the bone-crunching variety.
“I think it’s been good so far, I’m just trying to move my feet and make an impact on whatever it may be out there, and just play every shift like it’s my last and bring whatever I can to the team,” Hodgson said on Tuesday after taking part in an optional skate in Vegas, where the Sens play the Golden Knights on Wednesday.
Hodgson has proven an effective member of the fourth line through that stretch, according to both the underlying numbers (a 51.46 expected goals-for percentage) and Travis Green. “Yeah, he’s good, I like him a lot,” said Green on Nov. 15. “He brings a lot of energy, he’s fast, he’s smart, he can hit hard.”
The winger has also been taking reps on the penalty kill in Belleville. “It’s been great, there’s a lot of pace and a lot of pressure on our PK in Belleville, and obviously up here as well, and that suits me well,” said Hodgson.
And while that role has yet to be assigned to Hodgson in the NHL, you can bet if it does, the willing student will jump at it without hesitation.
