If his plans don’t change — and professional hockey careers often are in flux — Joe Pendenza expects to hang up his skates following the 2022-23 season.
The Wilmington, Mass., native is at peace with his career. No, he never made it to the National Hockey League, but the cerebral center has made the most of his talent.
Lightly recruited out of junior hockey, the 31-year-old Pendenza has played in more than 500 professional games (counting the playoffs).
A highlight of his career occurred June 11 when he led the Florida Everblades to the ECHL playoff championship. A four games to one series victory over Toledo was sealed by a 4-2 win before a standing-room-only crowd of 7,674 on home ice in Estero, Fla.
“It was nice because I really hadn’t had a playoff run,” Pendenza said after completing his eighth full minor league season. “You get to that point where you’re like, ‘Is this going to happen?’ A doubt kind of creeps in. Then it just happens. The last two months just flew by.”
It was Florida’s second Kelly Cup championship in its 24-year history.
The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Pendenza was a major reason the Everblades became the 10th team in the past 25 years — and the first since Colorado in 2018 — to win the Kelly Cup without having home-ice advantage.
Winning the championship at home was extra sweet for Pendenza.
“It was breathtaking, really. You kind of black out in that moment,” said Pendenza, who struggled to recall what he was thinking when he was skating around with the Kelly Cup to deafening applause.
In the Game 5 clinching victory, Pendenza assisted on a goal, capping an outstanding 20-game playoff run.
He netted five goals and 16 points for Florida, second most on the team behind only former Northeastern University skater Zach Solow (9-9-18 in 19 games).
His body was completely drained from a grueling 86-game season, but Pendenza found the energy to stay at Hertz Arena until 2 a.m. following the title game. Despite his fatigue, a smile rarely left his face.
If the 2022-23 season is his swan song, this past season created enough memories to last a lifetime.
Pendenza has played in more American Hockey League regular-season games (255) than ECHL (227) ones. Though he never received the call from the NHL, Pendenza sleeps well at night. He’s confident there’s nothing else he could have done.
His AHL stops took him to Milwaukee and Cleveland. He’s worn the jerseys of Cincinnati, Manchester, Idaho and Florida in the ECHL. He’s found a home with the Everblades, the team he spent the entire 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons with. At this point in his career, if he doesn’t reach the AHL again, he’s content to remain with Florida and set a good example for his teammates, most of whom are younger and starting their pro careers.
He and his wife are building a house in Florida, and he’s hoping to sign a contract with Florida for the upcoming season.
This past season, in 66 games, he registered 27 goals and 37 assists. The 27 goals and 64 points are career highs.
UMass Lowell head coach Norm Bazin, who developed Pendenza for three seasons, isn’t surprised the local product is still playing professionally.
“He’s the best example of a no-maintenance person that I’ve had at Lowell,” Bazin said. “If you want to put him on a checking line, he’s up for that. If you want to put him on a scoring line, he’s up for that. He’s a coach’s dream. He’s an excellent two-way player.”
College recruiters weren’t exactly banging down Pendenza’s door despite a productive season at Arlington Catholic High School and three campaigns with the Junior Bruins. But he made an immediate impact at UMass Lowell, located about 25 minutes from his childhood home.
He scored 49 goals and 110 points in 152 games as a River Hawk. Far more important than his statistics, however, was his role in helping UMass Lowell set a standard of excellence few thought possible when the River Hawks went 5-25-4 in Pendenza’s freshman season.
Pendenza was one of the building blocks Bazin used to build a winning program at Tsongas Center when Bazin took over prior to the 2011-12 campaign. In Pendenza’s last three seasons of college, UML went to the NCAA tournament all three times, won at least one game in the national tournament all three seasons, and compiled a 78-35-7 record, a staggering turnaround.
“The substance with him is so much greater than his flash,” Bazin said of Pendenza.
Blessed with a great work ethic, Pendenza was an impact player “every time he went on the ice,” according to Bazin, and a pivotal reason the River Hawks went to the Frozen Four in 2013. UMass Lowell fell to Yale in overtime in the national semifinals. Yale went on to win the title and Pendenza said he occasionally thinks about the loss in Pittsburgh that ended his junior season.
No other UMass Lowell team, despite unprecedented success under Bazin, has been able to reach the Frozen Four.
The closeness of the teams he experienced in college is almost impossible to duplicate in professional hockey. But Pendenza sensed early this past season that the Everblades had a special bunch.
“Just stuck together. We had a really good group of guys,” he said. “We had a lot of guys who at this stage of their career just wanted to win a championship. It kind of reminded me of a couple of teams we had at Lowell, especially my junior season.”
By the time the playoffs rolled around, Pendenza had a feeling Florida was capable of staging a long playoff run. He was right.
“We just kept getting better as the year went along,” he said. “Everyone was on the same page.”
Up three games to one in the championship series, the Everblades wanted to close out the series in Game 5. After a wild first period, the hosts were ahead 4-2. Then it was a matter of holding on to the two-goal lead. Playing in front of an SRO crowd helped.
“The fans came out. The atmosphere was unbelievable. The fans were into the game the whole game. It reminded me of being at Lowell and being in the college atmosphere,” he said. “We were happy to win it in Game 5 at home.”
Making his championship even more special was the fact that his wife, his wife’s parents, his father and his uncle were all in attendance when the Everblades celebrated with the Kelly Cup.
Pendenza plans to return to Wilmington over Labor Day to visit family and friends.
He will return as a champion.
