While most players haven’t been on the ice in a game situation in a little while, the NHL will be making waves later this week with the 2022 NHL Draft set to go with round one on July 7 and rounds two to seven on July 8.
Locally, the draft promises to offer some intrigue as some members of the North Bay Battalion are likely to hear their names called by big-league teams, including that of Ty Nelson.
“It’s pretty much all I have been thinking about these last couple of weeks,” the smooth skating defender said on the draft. “I’m excited. Hopefully, something great happens over the next couple of days while I am in Montreal. It’s a goal that I want to have completed on my checklist.”
“This is what I want to do for a living and this is the next step in doing that. I am a little bit nervous as it is one of the biggest things that will happen in my hockey career so I have nerves for sure. I think everyone goes through it a bit differently, but for me I just want to know where, or when, or if I am even going to get drafted.”
While being selected first overall by the Battalion in the 2020 OHL Priority Selection, the man nicknamed “Kid Nelly” may have to wait a little while longer to hear his name called in this draft. After putting up 51 points in 66 games, and adding another 10 in 13 playoff games, Nelson is currently ranked 32nd when it comes to North American skaters heading into the draft. With a ranking like that, Nelson could end up being the highest drafted member of the Battalion since the move to North Bay for the 2013/14 season. That honour currently belongs to Cam Dineen at 68th overall in 2016.
For Nelson, scouts have been watching him all season long in North Bay.
“For most of the scouts that I have talked to, they really enjoy the way I play,” he explained. “I’m a two-way defenceman who controls the powerplay and plays hard and physical in the D zone. Some feedback from them is they said to ‘keep developing, keep becoming a better player and person’ and that’s something I strive for every day is becoming one percent better and that’s the feedback they gave me is to grow as a person and player.”
The draft is usually a very busy time in players' lives. You have pre-draft interviews to go through, but even with those done, Nelson says he still doesn’t have a clear picture of who will select him.
“There are a few teams that really, really like me but you never know with these sorts of things. I mean, you hear stories of guys being drafted by teams that never talked to them, so I’m not going to put it in to ‘this team is going to draft me because I have talked to them four or five times,’ I’m just happy to go wherever and for myself, it is all about waiting and seeing.”
While many are looking forward to seeing Nelson get selected, the defender also has a bit of a busy schedule coming up afterward as he was recently named to the 2023 Team Canada World Junior camp. That camp will run July 23-27 in Calgary. The last time a member of the Battalion represented Canada at the World Juniors was Nick Paul who won gold in the 2015 tournament.
“I don’t know how to put it into words, this is a dream,” Nelson said of the camp. “Ever since I was old enough to watch TV, every Christmas you watch World Juniors. It doesn’t matter what time; you’re getting up at 4:30 in the morning to watch a game over in Germany and this is one of the biggest things on my checklist. I am super honoured that Canada recognized me to bring me to the showcase to try and make the team.”
Hockey Canada camps are nothing new for the defender, but this one brings a bit of a challenge.
“You’re going to have fun and enjoy the experience. So, for myself, I am going to go out there and be who I am and play who I am, make friends and learn all the new guys. In the beginning, it’s going to be challenging not knowing the other type of players they are but you get to know them and the game style.”
“It’s all about learning and getting to know people and excelling as a team because you get split up into teams in the camp and if you excel as a team, you excel as an individual.”
If Nelson makes the team, which won’t be announced until later in the fall, he will compete in the 2023 World Juniors in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Moncton, New Brunswick.
“It gives me goosebumps thinking about it,” Nelson stated. “As a Canadian kid playing hockey, it’s a goal that like the NHL, takes blood sweat and tears. If Team Canada gives me that call this year, I would probably start crying to be honest with you.”
