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Before the start of the 2012-13 season, Bobby Farnham found himself making the long drive to Wheeling after he was cut from the Hamilton Bulldogs training camp.
Three years later, Farnham made another drive, but this one had a different destination as he left one NHL team for another.
Farnham was claimed off waivers by the New Jersey Devils on Monday, re-uniting him with former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach John Hynes and former Pittsburgh general manager Ray Shero. The claim brought an optimistic end to a process that Farnham said was filled with uncertainty after Pittsburgh placed Farnham on waivers on Sunday.
“It was nerve-wracking,” Farnham said. “It’s a real uneasy feeling being on waivers thinking of all the possibilities. I just stayed put and waited.”
While Farnham joins Hynes in New Jersey, he leaves behind fan bases in both Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre where his physical style of play brought enormous popularity.
While it is comforting going to a place where the coach and system are familiar, Farnham acknowledged the hardest part is bidding farewell to the fans.
“The best fans in the AHL are in Wilkes-Barre. They’re unbelievable and I’ll definitely miss it,” he said. “I can’t thank them enough and Northeastern Pennsylvania will always be a big part of me.”
In three seasons with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Farnham appeared in 191 regular season games and amassed 666 penalty minutes.
His favorite Wilkes-Barre/Scranton memory?
“It will always be the Zach Sill goal against St. John’s in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals (2014). I was on the bench and Hynes subbed Tom Kostopoulos for me and that’s probably why we got the goal.”
Farnham said the fact that he’s switching NHL teams while a few years ago he got cut from an AHL team is “surreal.” In New Jersey, he’ll be joining a Devils squad that won its last four games and earned a point in its last five contests. Farnham said joining a club in the middle of a hot streak helps the transition, and he isn’t planning on changing his style of play.
“I’ll always play the same way. There are things I can get better at and I’ll work to improve, but I’ll bring my style to help the team win,” he said.
Better yet, the Devils play Pittsburgh on Nov. 14 – a date that Farnham has circled on the schedule.
“I noticed that right away. It’s only a couple of weeks off so that’s going to be fun,” he said.