Matt Brown (ice hockey)

Matthew Brown (born August 9, 1999) is an American professional ice hockey left winger who plays for the Reading Royals of the ECHL while under contract to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League (AHL). He previously played college ice hockey at Boston University. He was an All-American for BU in 2023.^[1]

Born in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, Brown played junior hockey in and around his home town of Tenafly, graduating from Tenafly High School in 2017.^[2] Afterwards, he travelled west and joined the Dubuque Fighting Saints but lased just 6 scoreless games before changing leagues and finishing out the year with the Odessa Jackalopes. For his final season of juniors, Brown gave the USHL one more try and saw much greater success with the Des Moines Buccaneers. He led the club in scoring and was a point per game player, helping the team reach the second round of the playoffs.

The following fall, Brown began attending the University of Massachusetts Lowell and led the team in scoring as a freshman. While his overall total was unremarkable, Brown helped to put the club in position for a potential NCAA tournament berth. Lowell finished the 3rd in the Hockey East standings that season and were preparing for their postseason run, however, before any games could be played the remainder of the campaign was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.^[3] Brown returned for the abbreviated Covid season in 2021 but neither he nor the River Hawks were quite up to the standards set before the pandemic.

That summer, Brown decided to use the new NCAA transfer rules and switched to Boston University.^[4] Hopes were high for Brown but he got off to a slow start and then sat out for over a month and didn't return until after Thanksgiving.^[5] His scoring increased afterwards and he appeared to be rounding into form, however, his life changed on January 30 when his mother, Debbie, died at the age of 51.^[6] Brown was able to collect himself long enough to score the deciding goal in the Beanpot semifinal against Harvard.

After a summer to come to term with the new reality, Brown was also had to contend with a 3rd head coach in 4 years as BU brought in Jay Pandolfo as the new bench boss. The new system, as well as the arrival of freshman phenom Lane Hutson, helped Brown raise his profile and post career numbers across the board. He nearly doubled his totals in all three categories and finished in the top-10 in the nation. While also helping BU win both the regular season and conference tournament titles, Brown was named to the All-American second team and assisted on the overtime winner in the Hockey East championship. Brown helped BU reach the Frozen Four for the first time in 8 years but could not stop the team from losing to the #1 overall seed.

Brown signed with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League on April 13, 2023.^[7][8][9] He split his first professional season between Lehigh Valley and the ECHL's Reading Royals, representing Reading in the 2024 ECHL All-Star Game.^[10]

• Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com, or The Internet Hockey Database