Leslie Neil Little, Jr. (born December 18, 1971) is a Canadian former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

. He was a member of the

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Wells ...

organization nearly his entire professional career, helping backstop the

Philadelphia Phantoms The Philadelphia Phantoms were a professional ice hockey team that played in the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1996 to 2009. The club was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and played most of its home games at the Spectrum (arena), Spectrum ...

to two

Calder Cup The Calder Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the playoff champions of the American Hockey League. It was first presented in 1937 to the Syracuse Stars. The cup is made of sterling silver mounted on a base of Brazilian mahogany. In its curr ...

championships and playing in two career

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL) games with the Flyers. Until 2015, he was an amateur scout for the Flyers. He is now a scout for the NHL

Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern ...

Playing career

Little played 4 seasons for R.P.I. (NCAA Div 1, ECAC) before starting a professional career. Little has played for the

Hershey Bears The Hershey Bears are a professional ice hockey team based in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a town located 14 miles east of the state capital of Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the c ...

and

in the AHL, as well as playing two

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

games for the

. He signed with the

Espoo Blues The Espoo Blues were an ice hockey team in the SM-liiga. They played in Espoo, Finland, at the Espoo Metro Areena. The club went bankrupt at the end of the 2015–16 Liiga season. History The club was established in February 1984 as Kiekko-Espoo ...

in the

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

SM-liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

for the 2005–06 season, played there until Christmas, then finished the season in Geneva, Switzerland. On December 28, 2003, he was the "flying goalie" in a brawl between the Phantoms and the

Binghamton Senators The Binghamton Senators were a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) that played from 2002 to 2017. Nicknamed the B-Sens, they played in Binghamton, New York, at the Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena. The B-Sens w ...

as several players from the two teams were fighting next to the Senators' net, Little skated across the rink and dove into the crowd. Despite only playing two career games with the Philadelphia Flyers, Little was named as one of the Flyers goaltenders for the

2012 NHL Winter Classic The 2012 NHL Winter Classic (known via corporate sponsorship as the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic) was an outdoor regular season National Hockey League (NHL) game, part of the Winter Classic series, played on January 2, 2012, at Citizens Bank P ...

Alumni game. He is also the founder of ProHockeyLaunch.com which is an evaluation and mentorship company for up-and-coming young hockey players.

Coaching career

Following his playing career, Little was named an assistant coach/goaltending development coach for the

as well as a global scout for the Philadelphia Flyers, concentrating his focus on goaltenders. He spent eight seasons with the Flyers organization before spending six seasons working with the

. Little spent the 2021-22 season working for the independent scouting firm Team 33 and was hired in the fall of 2022 by the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

as a scout. He was the assistant coach for the Princeton University Men's hockey team from 2007–08 to 2010–11 seasons.

Personal life

He married Catherine M Foote, DMD of Ardmore, PA in July 2013. Neil has four children, Nicholas, Elsie, Graysen and Piper.

Awards and honours

* 1997–98:

'' * 2004–05:

'' * 2006: Inducted into Philadelphia Phantoms Hall of Fame * 2007: Inducted into RPI's Athletic Hall of Fame

Career statistics

Regular season

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Little, Neil 1971 births Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Espoo Blues players Estevan Bruins (SJHL) players Florida Panthers scouts Grand Rapids Griffins (IHL) players Hershey Bears players Ice hockey people from Alberta Johnstown Chiefs players Living people Philadelphia Flyers draft picks Philadelphia Flyers players Philadelphia Flyers scouts Philadelphia Phantoms players Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni RPI Engineers men's ice hockey players Sportspeople from Medicine Hat Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Finland Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans