Many professional hockey players get labeled as journeymen, but few have earned the title more than goaltender Wade Flaherty, the Milwaukee Admirals seventh-ranked all-time player.

Flaherty’s played just one lone season in the Brew City, but the 2003-2004 campaign became the lucky 13th stop of his professional career. That season the then 36-year-old backstopped the Admirals one and only Calder Cup championship run.

“(Wade) was unbelievable for us, and you need that kind of goaltending to win,” Admirals teammate Tony Hrkac said of Flaherty, whose professional career spanned from 1988-2008. “I always go back to goaltending, but that’s where winning a championship really starts.”

For 13 seasons Flaherty bounced around North America, shuttling between through his various stops as primarily a backup goaltender at the National Hockey League level and as a starter in the American/International Hockey League. After NHL stints with the Sharks, Islanders, Lightning and Panthers, the Terrace, British Columbia native was traded to Nashville, where he would compete in the 120th and final NHL regular season game of his career.

Flaherty began the 2003-2004 as a veteran back stop for the Admirals, splitting time with Nashville first-round prospect Brian Finley and seeing action in 36 games. Flaherty helped the Admirals claim the best record in the AHL by posting a 21-12-3 record with 2.18 goals against average, a .922 save percentage and three shutouts.

“(Wade)’s a veteran and he understood that during the year Nashville had to bring along Finley and he was high on the goaltending list for Nashville,” Hrkac said of the former ninth-round pick in 1988. “But the bottom line is when you’re going for a championship you play your best players no matter what.”

Finley saw more action during the regular season, but it was Flaherty’s net during the playoffs. The veteran was in goal for 21 of his team’s 22 games, backstopping Milwaukee’s seven-game series win over Cincinnati in the first round, six-game dispatching of archrival Chicago in the second round and five-game rout of Rochester in the Western Conference finals.

But Flaherty saved another level for the AHL finals, allowing just nine goals as Milwaukee swept Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to claim the Calder Cup. For his efforts Flaherty claimed the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs.

“Wade Flaherty was a big part of that championship,” Hrkac said.  “We were very confident playing with him in the net.”

In the offseason Flaherty would sign with the Vancouver Canucks as a free agent, playing three seasons with the Manitoba Moose before one last go-around with the Rockford Ice Hogs in 2007-2008 as a 40-year-old.

After retirement the former 1988 ninth-round pick would stay in hockey as a goaltending coach, reuniting with former Admirals bench boss Claude Noel with the Winnipeg Jets for the team’s inaugural campaign in 2011-2012.