Nathan Walker: Ice hockey star conquers our final US sporting frontier

Nathan Walker grew up at the beach, far from any icerink, yet he has conquered Australian sport’s final US frontier.

Nathan Walker takes to the ice for the Washington Capitals. Picture: Yuri Gripas

Nathan Walker grew up on the sunbaked beaches of Sydney’s Cronulla, far from any ice rink, yet he has now conquered Australian sport’s final US frontier.

Walker, 23, will be the first Australian to play in the National Hockey League, the world’s premier ice hockey competition, after being named on the final roster for the Washington Capitals.

It’s an honour that will see him play alongside arguably the best player in the US, Russian superstar Alex Ovechkin.

“It’s pretty special, not just for myself but for all the hockey community back home who have supported me through everything. I think it will be huge for them,” he told The Weekend Australian in an exclusive interview in Washington.

Australians have broken into the top tiers of all other US sports. Basketball’s NBA, baseball’s MLB and American football’s NFL all feature Australians, but until now none has made it into the NHL.

It is a dream Walker has harboured since he was six when he first picked up a stick for the Blacktown Flyers ice hockey team, following a lead set by his older brother Ryan.

When Walker, who grew up in Cronulla playing rugby league and soccer, first skated onto the ice he says he was hooked. “It was awesome growing up on the beaches ... I played a bit of cricket, a bit of rugby, a bit of soccer — anything I could to get out of schoolwork,” he said. “But as soon as I stepped on the ice, I loved it. It was so unique and different to every other sport I had played.”

He then watched the ice hockey movie Mighty Ducks, which made him dream of bigger things.

Soon enough, Walker showed a talent for a fast and furious style of play that saw him outgrow the local game, which has only about 4000 players across the country.

When he was 13, his Czech coach at the time suggested he move to the Czech Republic to try to break into the big league.

“I wanted to pursue the hockey dream and I knew I couldn’t do that back home, just with the ice availability — how much you have to play and practice,” he said. “But it was tough leaving home at that age. The culture shock was huge ... I didn’t speak the language, I didn’t have any friends, I didn’t know anybody. It was hard.

“I was homesick every day and there were times I was calling my family and I’d say, ‘What am I doing? I want to come home, go back to school, get a real job’. Then I’d hang up the phone and think about it and decide that I still wanted to pursue the dream.”

Walker stayed in the Czech Republic until the Capitals took an interest in him in 2013. Since then he has played for the Hershey Bears, Washington’s American Hockey League affiliate, but each time he moved closer to NHL selection he was struck down by injury.

In 2013 he broke a bone in his neck after being hit from behind. Then in 2015 he tore his anterior cruciate ligament.

He is shorter than most players at 175cm, but this year the small forward has made it impossible for the Capitals to ignore his fast and feisty style of play.

“Nathan Walker’s got a really unique skill set; he is explosive, he is quick to get on people, he causes havoc, he is not nice to play against,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz told The Weekend Australian.

“A lot of those Australian qualities that endear you (to people) south of the equator — he has that mentality and mindset. He’s gonna make you pay when you’re out there, he’s gonna play hard against you and he’s gonna have an impact on the ice.”

Fellow Capitals forward Jay Beagle says, “I’ve never played with an Australian before and he is just a really good guy, too. You always root for the good guys.”

Whenever he goes home, Walker makes a pilgrimage to the place where it began — to the Blacktown Flyers to “have a skate with the kids” and hopefully fire them up to dream the same dream he imagined when he was a young boy.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia