BUFFALO, NY – Nolan Patrick fondly remembers going to American Hockey League games at Winnipeg’s MTS Centre hoping to see players from his hometown Manitoba Moose drop the gloves. The fact Patrick enjoyed a good hockey fight is not altogether surprising considering his father Steve racked up 242 penalty minutes, including 13 fighting majors, over parts of six NHL season!

“It’s fun to watch any hockey when you’re younger,” Patrick said. “I just remember being a young kid, being at those games and just cheering for a fight the whole game.”

Despite his affection for hockey fights, and his father’s penchant for fighting, you won’t see Patrick dropping the gloves too often.

“I know he fought more than me,” Patrick said of his dad’s career. “I think he was a lot tougher than I was, but there wasn’t too many highlights back then of him playing. I just saw a few fights so other than that, I don’t know too much about his game.”

Steve Patrick appeared in 250 NHL games with the Buffalo Sabres, New York Rangers and Quebec Nordiques between 1980 and 1986. Nolan’s uncle, James Patrick, also enjoyed a successful NHL career appearing in 1280 games with the Rangers, Hartford Whalers, Calgary Flames and Sabres before turning to coaching.

James Patrick spent time as an assistant coach with the Sabres and Dallas Stars; the 54-year-old was recently named head coach of the Western Hockey League’s Kootenay Ice.

“They’ve been huge for me my whole career and they’ve been a big help,” Patrick said of his father and uncle’s influence.

“There’s a lot (my dad) has influenced on me since I was young, he’s been my role model since I was a young kid and he still gives me a lot of support and a lot of advice. He’s been great for me. He coached me all the way up until I was nine, he was always around the rink with me.”

The middle of three siblings Patrick has an older sister Maddie, 20, and a younger sister Aimee, 14. Maddie Patrick just finished her first season playing at the University of British Columbia, but it’s the youngest Patrick sibling who Nolan thinks is the best athlete in the family.

“I think my little sister is going to be the best athlete,” Nolan said of Aimee. “She’s a good hockey player now and I think she’s got the best athletic skill in the family so I think it’s looking good for her.”

Patrick is a highly skilled centre that plays in all situations. The 18-year-old is at his best when he has the puck on his stick and his creating offence. He is a strong two-way forward that can be used on the defensive side of the ice and on the penalty kill effectively.

The Brandon Wheat Kings forward spent the entire season atop most rankings for this week’s NHL Draft, including in the ISS Hockey draft guide, which had Patrick ranked No. 1.

“There is no real weakness in his game,” said ISS Hockey scouting director Dennis MacInnis. “There are enough dimensions to his game that he could play a variety of roles in the NHL without much trouble.”

Projected as a big, strong two-way centre, with high-end skill at the NHL level, Patrick has drawn comparisons to Anaheim Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf.  

The one concern surrounding Patrick has been his health. Between Brandon’s regular season, playoffs, Memorial Cup and international competition, Patrick played over 100 games during the 2015-16 season and the workload took a toll on his body. Sports hernia surgery and an upper body injury limited him to just 33 games this season in which he scored 20 goals and 46 points for Brandon.

The injuries also forced Patrick to miss the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship. Hockey Canada recently announced that Patrick is one of 42 players invited to its summer evaluation camp ahead of the 2018 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship, which takes place in Buffalo.

As a result of the injuries, Patrick visited both New Jersey and Philadelphia – holders of the first two picks – to be checked out by the club’s respective medical teams earlier this month. The six-foot-one, 198-pound forward admitted he had issues with a second sports hernia, but that it didn’t require surgery.

“I don’t think so,” Patrick said when asked if he may require further medical attention. “I guess I’ll see when I get drafted, what the team wants to do with it moving forward, but there’s a ton of guys that have these injuries these days and everyone bounces back from it.

“I think there were four guys on my team that had surgery on it in the offseason this year. It happens a lot to hockey players, it mostly comes from over use age - that was part of my 107 game season last year, it was a long run and it’s a tough bounce, but I guess that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Regardless of whether he goes to New Jersey or Philadelphia at this week’s NHL draft, Patrick will have a familiar face in the organization.

“I know Brayden Schenn on the Flyers so I was talking to him a bit and I know Ivan Provorov on the Flyers so we’ve talked a bit,” Patrick said. “I know John Quenneville on New Jersey so I’ve kind of talked to all those guys and they both said they’d be happy to have me if I was to go there.”

After taking a few weeks off to recover following his third full WHL season, Patrick is back in the gym working towards his ultimate goal for next year.

“My goal is to get bigger and stronger,” he said. “My goal is to make the NHL next year and there’s a lot of strong, fast players up there so that’s what I need to improve on.”

DHIREN MAHIBAN