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Australian sporting history was made overnight, with Welsh-born, Australian-raised Nathan Walker becoming the first Aussie to be drafted into the National Hockey League.
The hard-skating winger known as ‘Stormy’ was selected by the Washington Capitals – the Caps star player, Russian Alexander Ovechkin, is considered to be among the best players in the game – in the third round (89th overall) after spending last season with the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears.
The American Hockey League, whose annual champion is awarded the Calder Cup, is one rung below the NHL, and, although it is on a much smaller scale in terms of crowds, media coverage and player contracts, it’s a fully-professional league with some major talent.
Walker’s love for the game came after he watched Mighty Ducks in his lounge room and decided, thanks to the heroics of Adam Banks, Charlie Conway, Goldberg and co, that he would give ice hockey a try.
Those films are a defining part of lives for so many of us who grew up in the late eighties and nineties. How many of us watched that great trilogy – stacked with great nods to Minnesotan hockey, and the great game as a whole – and wished we could perform like that on skates? Well, here’s a kid who actually did. That’s what makes the story so much more incredible.
Realising that Walker had legitimate talent, and a chance to reach the upper echelon of the sport, his family took a giant leap of faith, relocating to Europe when he was thirteen, and Walker’s barely looked back. He took the European leagues by storm, and moved to North America which is recognised as being the pinnacle of the hockey world.
Walker, twenty, has been tied to the Capitals organisation for some time. He wasn’t eligible for the NHL Draft last year due to his playing time in Europe, but that didn’t stop him from carving out a niche with the Bears, as well as featuring at the Capitals pre-season camp, and seeing limited game time in the pre-season schedule, which is often used to give fringe players at least a taste of what it’s like in the big leagues. Apparently, he impressed the Capitals.
There had been whispers that Walker’s abilities had been noticed by scouts from other teams, and in order to get their man, the Capitals, who have a new coach and general manager for Season 2014-15, had to trade up, sending fourth round picks No. 110 and No. 118 to the New York Rangers, thus ensuring that Walker becomes a Capital, and has a chance at playing alongside the goal-scoring machine, Ovechkin and another bonafide superstar, Swede Nicklas Backstrom.
Just being on the same sheet of ice with those two, and the other talented players on the Capitals roster is going to be a great thing for Walker’s development. No one knows scoring and offense like Ovechkin, the mercurial Russian whose jersey No. 8 earns him the nickname The Great Eight. It’s not undeserved, either.
As for Walker’s NHL prospects, it’s fairly likely that he will train pre-season with the Caps and will likely be assigned to Hershey for at least the beginning of the AHL season, but players come up and down between the NHL and the AHL with regularity, so it isn’t out of the realms of possibility that he sees big league action early on.
Regardless, this is a moment in Australian sport that should be celebrated. Take a look at Australians on the great stages of North American sport at the moment: Jesse Williams is on a Super Bowl-winning Seattle Seahawks roster in the NFL, Patty Mills just won an NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs (as did Aron Baynes), and, leading off on what’s been a pretty good week for Australians cracking the American big-time, Dante Exum was drafted fifth overall at the NBA Draft, and will join the Utah Jazz this season.
That’s just scratching the surface. Former #1 draft pick Andrew Bogut is earning millions in the NBA, and making a name for himself as a no-nonsense player, Tasmanian-born racer Marcos Ambrose competes in the top-tier NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Aussies Will Power and Ryan Briscoe are in front-running IndyCar Series drives, and there are dozens of our countrymen playing top-level college football and basketball across the United States.
Now, you can add Nathan Walker’s name to that elite club, and here’s hoping that the media coverage his incredible achievement has garnered in Australia paves the way for more players to follow their dreams, and also for extra media attention for the great sport of hockey – or, ice hockey, as it’s more commonly known down here – which, with it’s physicality and speed, would be a giant hit here, were we blessed with colder winters and better facilities.
Don’t forget, Walker will be an honorary member of the American team for the five-game International Ice Hockey exhibition series against a Canadian team. Both rosters will feature many AHL and NHL stars, and there are games in Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. It comes at the right time, with Walker’s ascension to the NHL, and should guarantee some added interest in a series that, even without Walker, will feature some great talent.
Congratulations, Nathan Walker.