A Storm is Brewing

Some times it takes awhile before a big storm finally gets to unleash its full potential. Even though Nathan Walker was ranked 25^th out of all the European Players coming into the 2012 draft I believed he only had a 40% chance of being drafted. This was for two reasons: his size and he played in Europe.  Usually only the top Europeans make a dent in the NHL within the first couple of years of getting drafted.   Players that are small in stature also often tend to slide lower than their rankings.  A belief held in the hockey circles (not one that I subscribe to) is that you can always teach a player to be a better player but you can not teach him to grow.  This leads to players like Martin St. Louis never getting drafted even though he went on to win the Art Ross Trophy on two occasions (leading scorer) and the Hart Trophy (League MVP) in 03/04.   I have belief that you cannot teach excellent vision and some players have it in spades like Wayne Gretzky and Martin St. Louis.  I also believe Nathan Walker posses this type of vision.

Despite this talent I thought that Stormy had next to no chance getting drafted this year.   He played out the last half of the year in the USHL which is a premier Tier 1 Junior (20 years old or younger) League in the United States.   Even though the league has 223 former players who played in the NHL the vast majority usually go off and play Division 1 University first.  Nathan put up almost a point a game which puts him up with the top scorers in the league, but was on par with the best scorers in the league.  Another draw back is that he finished the season on the sideline due to injur - which is never a good sign going into a draft.  He would have had all the Division 1 schools asking him to play for them, but he was ineligible because he played professionally in Europe.   At the end of the season I heard he intended on going back and playing for the Youngstown Phantoms.  I did not think this would be the best option for him in his professional career this year because although the USHL is a very skilled league it is not known to be an overly physical league.  A player with the short stature of Nathan Walker needs to show he will not be intimidated by bigger players on a regular basis.   When he was invited to the Capitals Rookie Camp again this year I was hoping he would put in a good performance and they would ask him to go play in a Major Junior League (WHL, OHL, etc.) or ask him to play for one of there minor league affiliates.

He did much more than put in a good performance.  He was playing exceptionally well and showed he would not be intimidated by bigger players.  He even had a scrap which will not make any fight highlight reels, but it showed he had heart and he could hold his own.  He was then brought into the main camp where he continued to impress and played in two preseason games where he did not put a foot wrong.  He was making plays, playing the body well, creating turnovers, using his speed, and covering defensively well in his own end.  In his first game he broke into the zone, received a pass and quickly fired a shot on goal. This forced the goalie to make an acrobatic save, and then give up a juicy rebound.  Stormy was already driving to the net when a teammate fired a shot that Stormy then deflected into the net (the game sheet only credited him with an assist).  In the next game he created a turnover in the offensive zone and made an excellent pass in which his line mate only had to tap it in for the goal.  It made the top 10 plays of the night (across all North American Sports) on Sports Centre that night and have the commentators at the game saying he was “the best player on the ice.”  The thing that impressed me the most was he was never out of position and seemed to always pick up the danger man his own zone.  I have not been this excited about a player trying to make a team since Scott Gomez was trying to make the New Jersey Devils in 1999.  Scott Gomez went on to win the Calder Trophy (Rookie of the year), play in the All-Star Game and bring home the Stanley Cup that year.

With the Capitals having a very talented line-up; I thought at worst the Capitals would sign him to a two-way contract.  A two-way contract is between the player and NHL team and their AHL affiliate team, which is the Hersey Bears.  The player is paid based on how many games they play in each division.  Then news came out that due to the Thomas Hyka rule the Capitals and no NHL team could sign him.   The ruling is in fact older than the instance with Thomas Hyka’s attempted signing with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2012.   The ruling came into place because European Leagues were having their leagues decimated with NHL Teams taking large portions of their players.   A lot of European Players would sign with NHL clubs and then be sent off to either the AHL or the league below in the ECHL and often never see any action in the NHL ever.   The NHL agreed with the IIHF that they would not sign any European Players that were not drafted and played the previous year in Europe.  In 2005 the NHL also dropped two rounds from their draft (from 9 to 7 rounds).  Only 12% of all players picked up in the NHL Draft from third round onwards played more than 200 NHL games in their careers (1990-1999 drafts).   The NHL and the IIHF also agreed on in 2007 to give the country that developed the player between $50,000 - $200,000 transfer fee depending on where they were selected and when the contract is signed.    This is done to help maintain good hockey throughout the world and not just in the NHL.

With Nathan Walker signing a one year contract with the Hersey Bears he will be a free agent next year and will be eligible to be drafted by any team in the 2014 draft.   If he is healthy and continues to show his hard work on and off the ice he will be the first Australian drafted in the NHL.  He could even go in the first two rounds.   Stormy really showed that he is capable of playing in the NHL this preseason and other teams will have taken notice.  In saying that in the NHL you never really make it, you have to continually prove that you deserve your spot on the team.  The easiest day was yesterday.  If Nathan keeps this in mind and I believe he will; there will be a BIG STORM BREWING IN THE NHL IN 2014.