Nolan Patrick is at the head of the 2017 NHL Draft class—and also a poster child for the consequences of a 17-year-old being expected to play so much hockey.
The Brandon Wheat Kings star needed sports hernia surgery after leading his team to the Ed Chynoweth Cup and a MasterCard Memorial Cup berth. Patrick, who will turn 18 in two weeks, has been skating separately from the Wheat Kings. He told the Brandon Sun last weekend that the injury occurred during Game 4 of the Wheat Kings’ third-round playoff series, which would mean that he played heavy minutes through nine post-season games in what was presumably intense pain. In the old-school, play-through-pain sense, that’s fairly astounding.
However, a sports hernia—essentially a tear in the lower abdominal area—doesn’t just happen suddenly. It comes from a gradual progression. It is, admittedly, sensational to attribute Patrick being sidelined to playing too much. The majority of prospects with 90-plus game seasons get through relatively unscathed. It is merely a launch point. The Winnipegger played 102 competitive games across a nine-month season last year with the Memorial of Ivan Hlinka under-18 tournament and the Memorial Cup as bookends to the Wheat Kings’ extended season.
A sports hernia is often caused from imbalances in flexion and/or strength that develop over time. Ten seconds on Google will show how preoccupied hockey players are with lengthening adductor muscles in their hips, possibly at the expense of also loosening the also all-vital hip flexors. Without knowing the cause of Patrick’s problem, it is worth wondering whether the conventional wisdom about how a young player can survive an 80- to 100-game grind is lacking. After all, the hockey industry isn’t about to start shortening schedules any time soon.
It is too early to say whether 2017 become known as the injury draft à la 2012, when Morgan Rielly, Alex Galchenyuk and Nail Yakupov each went down with significant injuries. Patrick will return in good time.
OHL teaching players about respect for women
Five years ago, one could not have imagined that the OHL would turn to sexual assault centres to develop a course about teaching players respect for women.
That means the league having all of its players go through a mandatory program that addresses topics such as bystander intervention, hazing, healthy masculinity and sexual violence—is more than a PR move. Young males with warped attitudes toward women aren’t limited to hockey and sports. But the amount of time OHL players are expected to spend in the cluster of a team environment makes it incumbent on the league to try to pass on some healthful social values.
It is also important that the message comes from people who are versed in the root causes of gender intimidation and violence. Hearing the message from someone like-minded can often, subconsciously, reinforce negative stereotypes.
There is seldom a week that passes without a reminder about the convergence between sexual violence and sports. That was writ large last week when former New Jersey Devils minor leaguer Ben Johnson was convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl in March 2013, when he was playing for the Windsor Spitfires.
Nizhnikov appears Barrie-bound
Given the needs of each team, it would make sense that 16-year-old Russian forward Kirill Nizhnikov has been traded from the Mississauga Steelheads to the Barrie Colts.
Nizhnikov, a skilled 6-foot-1, 183-lb. left-shot winger, naturalized for hockey purposes by playing in the Greater Toronto Hockey League—which has since banned import players by the way—before being selected No. 7-overall by Mississauga in the OHL priority selection. Mississauga has the makings of a contender in a wide-open (some would say, watered-down) Eastern Conference and Barrie is rebuilding, so the pending deal serves everyone well.
Twice in the past decade, Barrie has moved their 16-year-old top pick (Ryan Strome in 2009-10 and Givani Smith in ’13-14) to load up for a playoff run, so the Colts are due have an extra yearling. Once the deal is official, Nizhnikov will be skating with touted 17-year-old Swedish D-man Tom Hedberg.
QMJHL’s Guay gambles with Red Bull
It’s one thing to have a potential contributor choose the NCAA route, but the Chicoutimi Saguenéens have lost 17-year-old right winger Nicolas Guay to the Red Bull Hockey Academy in Salzburg, Austria.
There are more than 100 hockey academies in Canada, and the value of joining a program that offers resources supplied by one of the world’s biggest energy drink companies should not be understated. It does seem like proof of where the sport is going when Guay, who already had a foothold in the QMJHL, bolts to be hot-housed overseas.
The obvious trade-off: more 1-on-1, on-ice skill development instead of being on the bus for a roadie to Rouyn-Noranda and Val-d’Or. Guay had nine points in 37 games as a 16-year-old for the Sags while missing time due to a brain injury. It will be interesting to see where his gamble takes him in the sport.