Blues' Jake Walman Scores First NHL Goal On Special Night
The 25-year-old Blueliner Scored His First NHL Goal On Wednesday Night Nearly Seven Years After Being Drafted And On Hockey Fights Cancer Night At Enterprise Center, A Night That Has A Special Meaning For Him And His Family
By Caitlin Loggins
April 8th, 2021
On Wednesday night, as the Blues were in the midst of a seven-game losing streak, Jake Walman was inserted into the lineup in the place of Robert Bortuzzo who was being held out because of “Precautionary Reasons” (In other words, about to be traded.) and he took full advantage of the opportunity to prove why he should earn a permanent place in the Blues lineup.
In this article, I look at what led up to him making his NHL debut and eventually, scoring his first goal in the National Hockey League.
Growing up In Toronto
Jake Walman (Left), with Former Blue Robby Fabbri at 11 years old playing youth hockey together in Toronto | St Louis Blues / Facebook
Although Jake grew up in Toronto, he actually has dual citizenship as his mother is American, so he holds both American and Canadian Passports.
As for his hockey career, in the 2010-2011 season, he played for the Toronto Red Wings Bantam team, as both a forward and defenseman because due in part to being slightly undersized, his head coach at the time, former NHLer Claude Lemieux would, on occasion, shift him from defense to forward.
The following season, he joined the North York Rangers midget minor team in the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL),
where he put up 10 goals and 12 assists along with 18 penalty minutes in 33 games played along with 1 assist in four OHL Cup games.
In his draft year (2014), he started the season with the junior A Toronto Junior Canadiens and was named the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Rookie of the Year and Top Prospect.
He also scored 7 goals with 26 assists and 87 penalty minutes in 43 games before suffering an injury prior to the playoffs.
Then in January 2014, he committed to Providence College for the 2014-2015 season.
And in April, he was selected in the 6th round (112th overall) by the Peterborough Petes in the OHL Priority Draft in what was his third year of eligibility, but decided to stay with his original decision of going to college.
Then, two months later, in June 2014, his dream of reaching the NHL came true.
With The 82nd Overall Pick, The St Louis Blues Select… Jake Walman
Jake poses for his official draft photo | Jeff Zelevansky
On June 28th, 2014, at what was then the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia after selecting his former youth hockey teammate Robby Fabbri along with Ivan Barbashev and former Blue, now San Jose Shark Maxim Letunov.
The Blues used their third-round draft pick to take 6'1" defenseman Jake Walman out of the Toronto Jr. Canadiens of the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL), the Blues showed interest in him from the start as he said in an interview with Hockey's Future;
“The vibe I got from them was something I did not feel from the other guys. Every time St. Louis had a pick, I was on the edge of my seat.”
In the scouting reports, he was described as an excellent skater and very confident with the puck, but the one thing that kept him from being selected higher was his size as at the time of the draft he was 6'1" and 170lbs, slightly undersized for an NHL defenseman.
After being drafted, he joined Providence College in the fall of 2014.
Jake's College Career
Jake celebrates after scoring a goal for the Providence College Friars | Providence College
In his freshman year, he played in all 41 games scoring one goal and adding 15 assists for a total of 16 points, his 15 assists ranked seventh on the team and were the most by a Friar freshman and led all Friar defensemen.
In the NCAA Tournament, he put up four assists in four games played, recording a career-high three assists against Denver in the NCAA East Regional Final and being named to the NCAA All-East Regional Team.
He also received honors from Hockey East during his freshman season as he was named the Hockey East Rookie of the Week on March 30th, and was named to the Hockey East honor roll on November 17th, and January 26th.
In his sophomore year, he led all NCAA defensemen in goals with 13, power-play goals (8), points per game (1.04), and game-winning goals with four.
He also became the first Friars defenseman to record a hat trick since Rob Gaudreau in 1991, towards the end of the season, he missed 11 games, including the final 7 games with an injury.
He also received the following awards:
CCM All-American First Team (4/8)
First Team Hockey East All-Star (3/17)
First Team All-New England All-Star (4/1)
Hockey East Player of the Week (11/2)
CHN Player of the Week (11/3)
NCAA First Star (11/3)
3x Hockey East Weekly Honor Roll (10/12, 10/19, 11/30)
In his third and final year with the Friars, he served as one of the team's alternate captains while appearing in all 39 games producing seven goals and 18 assists for 25 points.
He also led the team with 146 shots on goal, while blocking 28 shots and having a +/- rating of +11, and registering four multi-point games, he also received recognition as a Hobey Baker Award nominee.
List of Awards received in 2016-2017:
CCM All-American Second Team (4/7)
First Team Hockey East All-Star (3/16)
All-New England All-Star (3/31)
Hobey Baker Nominee
Hockey East Honor Roll (2/27)
After the 2016-2017 season, he signed his entry-level contract with the Blues.
Jake Walman Turns Pro
Jake at the 2014 NHL Entry Draft | NHL / St Louis Blues
After completing his Junior season with the Friars he decided to forgo his senior year and on March 28th, 2017, he signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Blues and reported to the Chicago Wolves, the Blues AHL affiliate at the time on an Amateur Tryout Offer (ATO) where he finished the season.
Jake with the Chicago Wolves | Chicago Wolves / AHL
He returned to the Wolves in the 2017-2018 season, on October 2nd, 2017 after being cut from the Blues main camp roster where he put up 13 points in 34 games before being called up to the Blues on January 6th, 2018 after Vince Dunn was placed on the IR because of the flu but never dressed in a game for the team and was reassigned to Chicago two days later.
On January 31st, 2018, due to roster restrictions with Chicago as a result of the Blues sharing the Wolves with the expansion Vegas Golden Knights the Blues were forced to loan him to the New Jersey Devils affiliate, the Binghamton Devils, who were in last place.
Walman was once again given an excellent chance to log some serious minutes and make a real impact.
But In early February, he missed a few games after suffering a minor injury, and, when he came back, he often found himself on the third defensive pairing and was a healthy scratch for a handful of games.
Jake Celebrating his shootout winner with the Binghamton Devils | Binghamton Devils / AHL
However, despite not receiving a whole lot of ice time, or the opportunity to make a consistent impact in Binghamton, Walman still managed to tally seven points in 19 games.
He finished the entire 2017-18 season playing a total of 59 games and in that time he tallied 20 points which ranked 19th in the AHL amongst defensemen.
In the 2018-2019 season, he joined his fourth team in the span of a year when the Blues moved their AHL players to the San Antonio Rampage he played in 66 games for the Rampage putting up three goals and 10 assists for a total of 13 points.
Then in January 2020, after more than 2½ seasons and 164 games in the American Hockey League, he finally got his shot at the NHL.
Jake Walman Makes His NHL Debut
Jake from draft day to NHL debut | St Louis Blues / Tumblr
On January 4th, 2020 Jake made his NHL debut against the Vegas Golden Knights in place of an injured Colton Parayko, in fact, it was Parayko himself that told Jake he would be making his debut.
He said in an interview with The St Louis Post-Dispatch that;
“Colton told me to take a rep in the warmups, So there, I kinda had a hint. And then he told me (with) five minutes left in warmups"
The day before the game, Colton missed practice,so Jake thought that he might finally get his shot at making his NHL debut and called his mom Marianne, dad Glenn and Brother Noah so they were able to catch a flight to Las Vegas in time to watch him play.
He also said;
“That was a dream come true, It’s something I’ve been looking forward to since I started my skating at 3 years old. It was great to be out there, especially with this team. It was a lot of fun.”
He played just over 11 minutes in his debut, and after the game was able to meet with his college coach Nate Leaman, as Providence College was in Las Vegas for the inaugural Fortress Invitational college hockey tournament.
After making his debut, he was returned to the Rampage where he remained for the rest of the season until the playoffs where he was with the Blues as a member of their taxi squad while they were in the Edmonton bubble.
At the start of this season, he began the year as a member of the taxi squad, but after a rash of injuries, he finally got his chance and on Wednesday night he established himself as an NHLer.
Jake Scores His First NHL Goal With A Little Help From Uncle Doug
Jake with his first goal puck — and as you can see, it contains a special message | St Louis Blues / Facebook
Last night, on the second of two Hockey Fights Cancer nights at Enterprise Center Jake Walman had someone very special looking down on him, his uncle Doug Wilkie who passed away from Brain Cancer in April 2020, just one month after being diagnosed and to honor him Jake wrote “Uncle Doug” on his stick prior to the game, then at 13:31 of the 3rd period, it happened.
Jake writing “Uncle Doug” on his stick prior to Wednesday night’s game | St Louis Blues / Facebook
On a pass from Jordan Kyrou, he scored his first NHL goal on future Hall of Fame goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, he said after the game he doesn’t remember much about the goal as he “blacked out” after the puck went in the net.
After scoring the goal with his uncle’s name on his stick he said that it will become a ritual for him from now on to write his name on his sticks.
To learn more about the relationship between Jake and his Uncle Click on the link below:
https://www.nhl.com/blues/news/walman-honors-uncle-during-hockey-fights-cancer-games/c-323337204
