Making strides to achieve NHL dream

To say Jordan Nolan’s hockey career has been a roller coaster ride in the last six months would be an understatement.
Nolan’s junior career ended in controversy when the Ontario Hockey League suspended him for 20 games for an on-ice incident in March.
It was the beginning of a long summer for Nolan who wasn’t sure about where he would end up this season. His future as a pro hockey player in doubt, Nolan decided to put the incident behind him and get to work.
After a summer of training, Nolan went to training camp with the Los Angeles Kings, the team who drafted him.
“I went to camp with no contract and worked really hard over the summer so it worked out,” Nolan said.
He did well, as L.A. signed him to a three-year entry level deal and assigned him to the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League.
“It’s been pretty good here so far,” said Nolan, who recently scored his first AHL goal. “The speed and size of the players took a few games to adjust to but I know now that I can play here so I’ve enjoyed it.”
A power forward in junior hockey, Nolan’s coach Mark Morris has told him what he needs to work on at the AHL level to be successful.
“His main thing with me is developing my game, controlling the puck down low and being good at playing defensive hockey and to keep my feet moving,” Nolan said.
While he’s been making the on-ice adjustment to pro hockey, he is a true rookie in one area of his life.
Since he played for the Soo Greyhounds the last two seasons, he was able to stay at home on the nearby Garden River First Nation, just outside Sault Ste Marie.
This is the first time he has truly been on his own, but he does have a place in Manchester with two other teammates.
“It’s the little things that I’m learning,” he said. “How to cook, laundry. I just watched what my roomies were cooking, they know how to cook lots of things and that’s been good for me.”
There are other things as well.
“Just living on my own, paying bills and being professional about the game is a lot to do. My approach to the game is different now,” Nolan said. “It’s a job now. If I don’t do things right I may be in the stands. You can’t take a night off here.”
But if there is someone he can lean on when things get tough it’s his dad Ted, who went through his share of adversity in his quest to make the NHL.
“We talk a lot,” Nolan said of his relationship with his father Ted. “He’s been pretty good. He keeps his distance on certain things; he tries not to coach me too much. He gives me little tips.
“I’m going to have a ways to go to get a call-up but you have to get better and pay your dues.”
Philip Paul Martin is editor-in-chief of Native Hockey News, an online Native hockey news source found at www.nativehockeynews.com.