In May, new Blackhawks prospect Nolan Allan became the fourth Prince Albert Raiders player ever to win an Under-18 World Championship with Canada.
The group he joined contains Josh Morrissey, the Jets’ No. 1 defenseman this past season, and two career minor-leaguers. One of those two minor-leaguers is a man perhaps slightly familiar to the Blackhawks, though: Jeremy Colliton.
The list of coincidences goes on. Colliton’s Canadian team captured their U-18 gold medal on April 18, 2003 — 10 days before Allan was born. And when Allan’s team ended Canada’s eight-year U-18 gold medal drought earlier this summer, it was with Hawks general manager Stan Bowman watching from the stands.
Allan’s performance in the tournament and the championship game in particular impressed Bowman so much that, after trading down to the 32nd pick of the NHL draft Friday, he made the young defenseman the Hawks’ 2021 first-round pick.
“Nolan was fantastic in that tournament,” Bowman said. “You notice when Nolan Allan’s on the ice. He’s got the size, the skating and the physicality. He was a big workhorse for the Canadian team… He certainly caught my eye watching that game.”
For Allan, who — along with most draft pundits — didn’t expect to go in the first round, it was a minor shock when he popped up in the waning minutes of Sportsnet’s Friday night broadcast.
His family’s celebration was probably loud enough to wake up all 1,025 residents in his hometown of Davidson, Saskatchewan, a farming area best known for containing supposedly the world’s largest coffee pot.
“The Blackhawks were a team I talked to probably one of the most out of the other teams,” Allan said Friday. “I had a feeling there, [but] I didn’t really know when. I was thinking maybe second round, somewhere in there. But I was really excited to hear my name called tonight.”
Davidson, in another odd coincidence, is also the hometown of Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb. Allan mentioned watching McNabb growing up as a major influence on him, and that is evident in his game.
Scouting reports describe Allan as an extremely defensive defenseman, but those are based on limited samples. The pandemic-shortened Canadian junior hockey season meant Allan only got in 16 games, in which he tallied only two points, with Prince Albert in 2020-21.
At the Under-18s, where Allan was paired with future Kings eighth overall pick Brandt Clarke, Hawks scouting director Mark Kelley saw more versatility in Allan’s skills.
“It’s the subtleties of his game: he’s physical, blocks shots, kills penalties, plays a lot of hard minutes,” Kelley said. “He’s not a flashy player, but yet he’s very mobile [and makes a] very safe first pass. He can handle a puck, but his decision-making when he has the puck is very efficient.”
Those puck-moving abilities are clearly priorities for Allan moving forward, too.
“I’ve got that foundation of being a physical, stay-at-home defender and playing on the penalty kill and keeping pucks out of the net,” he said. “So the next step would be to add another element to my game and work on the offensive side, whether it be puck skills, [my] shot or jumping into the play.”
He plans to return to the Raiders for the hopefully back-to-normal 2021-22 Western Hockey League season. That should give him plenty of time to improve and prepare to potentially sign his NHL entry-level contract next summer.
Although he doesn’t currently have a “set timeline” in mind for his career progression, the Hawks will be increasingly turning their attention toward their next generation of defensive prospects — and picture Allan as a crucial part of that generation — following Adam Boqvist’s departure from the organization.