Nathan Walker Hits The World Stage

by Derek Zona on Jan 1, 2012 11:45 AM MST in International hockey

When I first wrote about Nathan Walker, the first Australian with a shot at the NHL...

Nathan Walker is a 5'9" 176 lb forward from Sydney, Australia. At 5'9", Walker is small, but he's got the speed to play in any league. Most people have been denied a chance to see Walker play internationally, where he's competed in the B division of the World Juniors and scored 4 goals in 4 games.

Like Hari, Walker left home to pursue a hockey career and better himself. He left Sydney for the Czech Republic and joined the HC Vitkovice system. He's been better than a point per game player during his time in the Czech Junior Leagues, including 18 points in 10 games in the Under 20 league this season. His performance earned him a promotion to Vitkovice's Extraliga team.

...he still looked like a longshot to make the NHL, let alone hear his name called at the NHL Draft in June.

My how things have changed. Last week, HC Vitkovice, Walker's new club, took part in the Spengler Cup, the annual professional tournament held in and hosted by Davos.

This year's edition featured Davos, Vitkovice, Team Canada, Dinamo Riga, Kloten, and Wolfsburg.

Vitkovice participated in a round robin group consisting of Team Canada and Davos. In two pool games, Walker scored a goal and assisted on another. In the medal round semi-finals match against Davos, Walker scored yet again.

Walker scored two goals and added an assist in Vitkovice's four tournament games. While the Spengler Cup isn't NHL hockey, or even KHL hockey, it is the best competition Spengler has faced to date. If NHL scouts weren't aware of Walker before, they are now.

One observer who has been on top of Walker's ascent is Corey Pronman from Hockey Prospectus. I mentioned here that Pronmon has Walker ranked 90th. I misunderstood Pronmon's take on Walker -- he doesn't have him ranked 90th, he has him in the top 90 for the 2012 draft, and believes he may end up somewhere in high 60s. Pronmon is the first, and only to my knowledge, draft guru to rank Walker in the top 100, let alone rank him as someone who may shove his way into the second round.

Walker has four goals and three assists for HC Vitkovice in the Czech Extraliga.

Tweet Comment 4 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

I happened to see Vitkovice and Walker play Team Canada on TV while waiting for the Canada–Finland WJC opener to begin. He made quite an impression in that game, even if his team lost 1–7.

He skates like the wind and has good hands, but the thing that impressed me the most was his attitude and willingness to get his nose dirty. He constantly challenged defensemen twice his size and drove to the net.

A comparison that instantly comes to mind is Mattias Tedenby of the Devils, who actually seems to be a nice comparable even statswise. He was a first rounder, which I don’t think Walker will be.

I’d definitely usea third rounder on him, if just for the story. You don’t often get to draft a kid who originates from Wales, has lived his childhood in Australia and moved to Czech Republic as a teenager to develop as a hockey player. I mean, even the Czechs usually move to Canada around the same age…

by Eetu Huisman on Jan 1, 2012 12:39 PM MST reply actions

I do wonder why he chose the Czech Republic though…. it’s not a league with very many foreigners and Czechs (generally speaking) are not good with speaking English. You’d thik Finland or Sweden would’ve been better destinations for him? It’s a great story and I hope he does well… Vitkovice really turned things around once Malek went into net (he was named Tournament MVP). They almost upset Davos twice with a very depleted team. The irony that both times they were done in by Czech players was pretty frustrating though!

by Czechboy on Jan 1, 2012 1:28 PM MST reply actions

As I understand, it was his coach...

Walker’s coach when he was 13 or so was from the Czech Republic, so got him the tryout with the Czech team he went to. Sometimes, it’s all about the connections – if he had Finnish or Swedish connections, maybe he would have ended up there. And, I also saw speculation somewhere about potential visa issues – perhaps Canada isn’t too willing to allow 13 year olds into the country to stay with a foreign family to play hockey? (though it doesn’t seem to be as much of an issue for older teens, example being Christopher Gibson, the Finnish junior team goalie, who played for/went to Notre Dame – maybe it being a boarding school makes a difference there. And then obviously 18 year olds from other countries going to Canadian major junior doesn’t seem to be as much of an issue either … )

by guidemd on Jan 2, 2012 10:47 AM MST up reply actions

Why Czech and not Scandinavia

As Nathan’s coach in Down Under we evaluated several options. The Scandinavia was considered however we decided to try Czech republic.
Vitkovice became Nathan’s second home. The coach (Branislav Kromka) from Slovakia who discovered Nathan for ice-hockey (he played inline at age of 6) was already living and working in Ostrava.
another friend of mine was coaching Juniors in Vitkovice (Jakub Petr) and he was prevoiusly living and playing hockey in Sydney (Sydney Bears), hence he was fluent in English and he understand Oz mentality, differences etc.
Branko, Jakub and his late wife Petra were helping to Nathan to accommodate in Czech.
Vitkovice club was very helpful, Mr. Svozil ensured that Nathan gets the equal opportunity as Czech players. there was no discrimination whatsoever and today we can say that choosing HC Steel Vitkovice was the best move we could have made.

by ivan.manco on Jan 4, 2012 10:51 PM MST up reply actions 1 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed

Oilers Schedule

Last 5 Games

@ Vancouver Nucks Misconduct	Sat 04/07	L 0 - 3
Anaheim Anaheim Calling	Thu 04/05	OT - L 2 - 3
@ Los Angeles Jewels From The Crown	Mon 04/02	L 0 - 2
@ Anaheim Anaheim Calling	Sun 04/01	W 2 - 1
Los Angeles Jewels From The Crown	Fri 03/30	L 1 - 4