Former Flyers and Golden Knights middle Nolan Patrick formally retired from the NHL, a number of sources reported Tuesday night time and Wednesday morning. The 25-year-old was an unrestricted free agent and has not performed since March 2022 as a consequence of a migraine dysfunction. The Flyers’ 2017 second-overall choose and son of former NHL winger Steve Patrick has been hired as a skills coach by The Power Play, a hockey teaching program run by former NHL ahead Jayce Hawryluk.
It’s been difficult to look at Patrick’s constant concussion points for all hockey followers. After a 2015-16 season by which Patrick completed fifth in WHL scoring with 41 targets, 61 assists and 102 factors in 71 video games with the Brandon Wheat Kings, he was considered because the slam-dunk first-overall choose within the upcoming 2017 draft.
Nonetheless, Patrick’s important damage points started throughout the 2016 WHL Playoffs. He sustained a sports activities hernia damage late within the postseason and, regardless of having immediate surgical procedure to restore the hernia, problems would come up from the surgical procedure early within the 2016-17 season. These problems restricted him to 33 video games with Brandon that 12 months, and though he nonetheless excelled with 20 targets and 46 factors, his point-production tempo took a small step backward from the 12 months earlier than. He additionally missed the prospect to play for Canada in that 12 months’s World Junior Championship, main eventual Devils captain Nico Hischier to usurp him because the first-overall choice in 2017.
Patrick signed his entry-level contract with the Flyers promptly after the draft. Nonetheless, the workforce rapidly introduced Patrick would miss their offseason improvement actions as he was recovering from a second belly surgical procedure carried out simply days earlier than the draft. Fortunately, it didn’t cease him from being a full-time participant at age 19 throughout his rookie season with the Flyers, by which he logged 13 targets and 30 factors in 73 video games whereas averaging 13:43 per recreation. The season didn’t end in any Calder Trophy recognition, but it surely did look like his improvement right into a future star in Philadelphia was again on monitor. Sadly, his 73 video games and 13 targets would each be career-highs.
He was capable of keep the course and keep away from damage points within the 2018-19 marketing campaign, however his level manufacturing didn’t escape like most anticipated. Taking part in in 72 video games, he matched final season’s aim whole and added yet one more help, basically placing up the identical stat line regardless of a rise in ice time.
Nonetheless, throughout the next offseason, the Flyers announced Patrick had been recognized with a migraine dysfunction, which the diagnosing doctor believed to be genetic and never associated to a hockey damage. Whereas he would start skating with the workforce months into the season, the COVID pandemic began shortly after that, and he couldn’t take part within the league’s Return to Play protocol, conserving him out for the whole lot of the 2019-20 marketing campaign. That was the primary of two seasons Patrick can be held out completely as a consequence of migraine points.
A restricted free agent after the expiration of his entry-level contract, Patrick signed a one-year qualifying supply to stay with the workforce and cleared medical protocols to start the 2020-21 season on the energetic roster, enjoying his first NHL recreation in almost two full calendar years. He was nonetheless feeling the results of his migraine dysfunction, nonetheless, and it mirrored in his efficiency. By any metric, Patrick was one of many worst gamers within the league that 12 months, posting 4 targets and 9 factors in 52 video games with a staggering -30 ranking, the worst on a Flyers workforce that didn’t make the playoffs however nonetheless completed above the .500 mark.
Logically, that season led each the Flyers and Patrick to need an amicable departure and a recent begin for the previous high-flying prospect. In July 2021, the Flyers traded Patrick to the Golden Knights within the ill-fated three-way commerce with the Predators that noticed high-end defenseman Ryan Ellis find yourself with the Flyers. Ellis performed simply 4 video games in a Philadelphia sweater earlier than a poorly-handled damage to his psoas muscle ended his profession.
After buying his signing rights, Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon, who had presided over Patrick’s junior tenure in Brandon, signed him to a two-year, $2.4M contract. Together with his migraine dysfunction nonetheless ongoing, nonetheless, Patrick would play simply 25 video games for Vegas in 2021-22, recording two targets and 7 factors whereas averaging 11:30 per recreation. He was one in every of many Golden Knights gamers who missed important time that season, main the franchise to overlook the playoffs for the primary time in franchise historical past.
Whereas Patrick was beneath contract with Vegas final season, he remained on long-term injured reserve for the entire marketing campaign and didn’t swimsuit up in any video games en path to the Golden Knights’ run to the 2023 Stanley Cup. Vegas didn’t tender Patrick a qualifying supply final summer time, and thus, he turned an unrestricted free agent. The Winnipeg-born middle finishes his NHL profession with 32 targets, 45 assists, 77 factors, and a -36 ranking throughout 222 video games.
All of us at PHR want Patrick well being and achievement in his post-playing profession.