After being selected in the third-round of the 2014 NHL draft by the Washington Capitals, Nathan Walker had a chance to make some history by being the first player from Australia to play a regular season game in the NHL.
After spending the past four seasons in the American Hockey League for the Hershey Bears, he might finally get a chance to do that this upcoming season as the team looks to replace veteran forward Daniel Winnik on the fourth line.
CSN Washington recently focussed on Walker’s chances for making the team this upcoming season (video above) with Capitals inside Tarik El-Bashir suggesting that Walker has been penciled in to that role this upcoming season.
Walker doesn’t provide a ton of size (listed at 5-8, 186) but he brings a noticeable energy to the ice and isn’t afraid to play a rough, physical game and will even drop the gloves on occasion. On a team that already has Tom Wilson getting under the skin of opponents would make the Capitals’ bottom six more than a little infuriating to have to play against. But as far as actually doing things that are relevant to winning games, Walker’s offense has taken a noticeable step forward the past two seasons with 64 points in 131 games for Hershey. In his first two years of pro hockey he managed just 15 points 73 games. His offensive contributions practically doubled over the past two years.