It Looks Like Former Flyer Nolan Patrick Retired
This one is unsurprising in context and yet sort of surprising in how it became public.
Newish Flyers beat reporter Jonathan Bailey over at PhillyHockeyNow unearthed an Instagram post from a hockey coaching and mentorship program called The Power Play, listing 2017 No. 2 overall pick Nolan Patrick as a skills specialist, video coach, and mentor and later in his bio identifies him as a retired pro with significant NHL experience.
You can see it if you look halfway through the text here:
View this post on Instagram
It’s not surprising that Patrick, 25, is out of hockey as a player. He was one of the all-time busts in the NHL draft and he also had his playing career curbed by repeated concussions and hasn’t played in an NHL game since 2021-22.
What is surprising is how there wasn’t something released by Patrick himself or his agent, or the league, or even the NHLPA, who always announces when players choose to hang up the skates, that he has chosen to retire.
It’s almost as if he was an afterthought, which, if you watched him play, it’s almost as if playing was an afterthought to Patrick.
He had a ton of skill, which is why he was so highly coveted going into the draft, but he never seemed to have the desire that most players who get picked that high have for playing the game. It’s as if he liked hockey, but didn’t love it.
The Flyers selected him second, with then-GM Ron Hextall going rogue and selecting Patrick on his own when his scouts were pushing for the Flyers to select a defenseman in the draft instead.
That story was first written here on Crossing Broad and much later confirmed by former Flyers GM Bob Clarke in an interview with the Cam and Strick Podcast.
Bobby Clarke “None of our scouts wanted Nolan Patrick” also says Philly could’ve had Ryan O’Reilly. Full episode avail now. @CamandStrick #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/PYA6LFa7wW
— Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) January 11, 2022
The reality is, the scouts wanted Miro Heiskanen, not necessarily Cale Makar, at the time, but Hextall ignored the scouts and selected Patrick. Heiskanen ended up in Dallas and Makar in Colorado and they are each among the top 10 defensemen in the sport.
Meanwhile, Patrick was a flop in Philly, and missing on him (as well as previous first rounder German Rubtsov, although not nearly as painful considering Patrick was the second pick in the draft) set the Flyers back for multiple years, even after Hextall was long gone.
Patrick will always be remembered as one of the worst picks, if not the worst, in Flyers history. But hey, at least he’s mentoring others in the sport now.
Anyway, enough looking back. The current Flyers are fun and exciting and have a bright future. Focus Forward.