Go Nathan Walker!

Welsh born but Sydney raised Nathan Walker, 20, has been selected by the Washington Capitals in the third round of the annual NHL draft.  He is apparently the first Australian (or, Australian resident?) to be drafted into an NHL franchise (though I thought there was another in the sixties, albeit he never actually played for the NHL team).  This is a big thing and great for Ice Hockey downunder.  Now our younger players know that it can be done!

Walker started skating at age 5 or 6, following in his older brother's sudden passion for ice hockey after the boys had watched Disney's 'The Mighty Ducks'.  By the time he was 13 he and his family decided that he should go to the Czech Republic to pursue his dream, he simply wasn't getting enough ice time where he lived.  Then followed a number of years competing in various teams within the Vitkovice franchise.  Last year, he was invited to a tryout for a pro league team in the North America, the Hershey Bears in the AHL (not having been born in North America nor having played in a Canadian Major Junior League team, he was eligible for pro league selection despite still being a teen).  The Bears are affiliated with the NHL's Washington Capitals, so Cap's got to have a reasonable look at Walker for the last season (in which he played 43 games, scoring 5 goals and 6 assists.

In the trading that surrounds the draft, the Cap's swapped their fourth and fifth round picks for another third (the 89th pick overall) and used that to select Walker.  They said later that they had 'targeted' him and would take him if they could, ahead of the interest in him displayed by other clubs (he had been placed as high as a fourth round pick in various prognostications I've read over the past few months).  Walker said that he had no idea of what if any designs the Capitals had on him going into the draft.  In fact, he had phlegmatically responded to questions on the subject by saying, "I'm guessing they're probably thinking the same thing I am. Just wait and see how it all pans out.”

By all accounts he sounds a nice guy and very hardworking and fearless player.  The US media is even describing him as 'NHL ready', something regarded as unusual in a draft pick during their first year.  The reasoning varies, but seems to be a combination of his actual ability and work ethic, his age and thus physical development (he is a second year draftee, having not been chosen the year before, making him a year older than the 'cream' of the crop and the bulk of the others), and the fact that he rose to the occasion of playing regular games in a pro league season with and against fully developed 'men'.

He is scheduled to come back to Australia to participate in the International Ice Hockey tournament between American and Canadian teams in July.  We should get to see him playing in the Stars and Stripes when we go to see the Melbourne game.

Good on him!

Notes (edit): The official Draft site of the NHL only gives information on Walker playing in the Czech Extraliga and in the AHL.  It doesn't mention that he has played for the Sydney Ice Dogs in the AIHL or the Youngstown Phantoms in the USHL.  Nor, sadly, does it mention the fact that he has played 5 (?) times for Australia at the Ice Hockey World Championships.  He was the first Australian to play professionally in Europe and the youngest player to ever score a goal in the Spengler Cup (2011).  There's a Wiki page on him which is probably the best source of information.