Nate Thompson
Nate Thompson is 38. He’s been a pro for 18 seasons. He’s played 1,244 regular-season and pro playoff games, 930 of them in the NHL, the world’s best league. He’s a checking-line center and penalty killer with a physical edge. The veteran from Anchorage has ample mileage on his body.
But Thompson’s brief playoff time with the Ontario Reign of the American Hockey League in the last week – the Colorado Eagles eliminated the Reign 2-0 in the best-of-3 opening-round series – shows his gas tank isn’t empty yet.
Thompson scored two goals and assisted on one goal in those two games – a 3-2 overtime loss Wednesday and a 6-4 loss Saturday – to tie for the Reign lead in goals, assists and points. He went plus-1 with three shots in the series.
All that came after he played just 30 regular-season games and produced 1-5—6 totals.
Thompson this offseason is an unrestricted free agent. Besides his combined 930 NHL games, he’s played 290 total AHL games and 24 regular-season games in the ECHL. Those ECHL games came in the 2012-2013 season, with the Alaska Aces, before the NHL lockout ended in January, 2013. Those were crazy, cool times – the Aces during the lockout included Thompson as well as NHLers Scotty Gomez, Brandon Dubinsky and Joey Crabb. (Gomez, Dubinsky and Crabb are all retired. A member of that Aces team, defenseman Corey Syvret, is a current NHL referee after he retired as a player.)
Nolan Walker
In the ECHL, meanwhile, rookie center Nolan Walker of Anchorage and the Newfoundland Growlers is off to a strong playoff start.
Walker scored an empty-net goal Friday in an 8-4 win at Adirondack and scored the opening goal Saturday in a 7-1 win at Adirondack, which furnished the Growlers a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 opening-round series.
Those goals in consecutive games marked just the second time this season Walker has scored in back-to-back games. He went 15-26—41 in 68 regular-season games. Walker in three playoff games owns 2-0—2 totals and a plus-1 rating.
Alec Butcher
Forward Alec Butcher of Anchorage and his Reading Royals own a 2-0 series lead on the Maine Mariners after Friday’s 2-1 win and Saturday’s 5-3 victory. He is without a point and is minus-1 with three shots on goal.
In the Southern Professional Hockey League, the season ended Sunday for forward Cayden Cahill of Anchorage and the regular-season champion Peoria Rivermen. They lost 5-3 to the visiting Rail Yard Dawgs, the No. 4 seed, in the decisive game of the best-of-3 semifinals.
Cahill played the middle game of the series, and he played in two of Peoria’s five postseason games. In the regular season, he earned 13-23—36 totals and a plus-20 rating in 44 games. Cahill also made his ECHL debut, playing one game for the Toledo Walleye.