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NCAA Prospect Report: Nathan Smith |
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Everyone’s draft story is unique: from where they were, to who they were with, to how they found out.
For Nathan Smith, who the Jets drafted in the third round of the 2018 entry draft, he found out his lifelong dream of being drafted to the National Hockey League had come true when his name popped up on screen, during draft coverage.
“I didn’t get the call prior [to seeing his name pop up]. We were all at my mom’s friend’s house just because that was the best venue to do it at. I had my family, mom, dad, grandma, my nana and some friends there,” Smith told HockeyBuzz.
“We were all kind of hanging out because at that time, they weren’t really announcing many names. It was kind of like they would pop up onto the screen and then my name popped up onto the screen as we were watching and everybody kind of went nuts.”
Growing up in Florida, Smith’s first introduction to hockey came during his time spent playing roller hockey with friends. From the Florida streets and playgrounds, to tournaments across the country, Smith’s love for the game quickly grew.
“I played roller hockey growing up, I didn’t get into ice hockey until I was 11,” said Smith. “Roller hockey was all we knew, really. I traveled the country playing roller hockey, just different tournaments."
Once Smith got onto the ice and began his ice hockey career, his talents led him to the USHL where he spent two seasons with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. In 110 career games with Cedar Rapids, Smith had 35 goals and 65 assists for 100 points.
“It was a great experience for me as far as my development as a player and a person. I had my ups and downs, but hockey wise, I think it really prepared me for college hockey,” said Smith. I think just playing in the USHL prepared me for the defensive game and the physicality at the college level.”
It was the June after his final season in Cedar Rapids when Smith was drafted by Winnipeg. He’s since attended two development camps and stays in frequent contact with Jets’ scouts and player development team.
“I talk to them here and there, it’s not every day. They come out to games, sometimes they let me know they’re there, sometimes they don’t and then usually we have a quick chat after the game about how things have been going, my game that night or just pretty much anything. We catch up every once in a while,” said Smith.
“I think the biggest thing I took away [from development camp] was just play with a high pace because as your progress at any level, to the next level, it gets faster and faster and guys are making decisions a lot quicker so you have to react to that a lot quicker—everything gets quicker.”
When away from the rink, Smith says he’s super busy with school and homework, but still makes time when he can to check in on the Jets and see how things are going.
By the time Smith was drafted, he had already committed to attending Minnesota State. Smith’s freshman year saw him finish with nine goals, and 18 assists in 35 games. That season the Mavericks finished 23-4-1. After a WCHA quarterfinal sweep of Alaska Anchorage, the Mavericks were looking for a deep WCHA playoff and NCAA tournament run.
But that was when COVID struck, prematurely putting an end to the 2019-20 college hockey season.
“My freshman year was definitely a bummer, I think that team could have done some really great things and I think a lot of other people thought that as well,” said Smith.” I really felt bad for the seniors that year, some of them came back specifically because they knew we were going to have a good team and we wanted to make a deep run, that was a huge bummer.”
The Mavericks repeated their success last season, going 13-1 in a COVID shortened season. After being upset in the second round of the WCHA playoffs by Northern Michigan, the Mavericks went on a deep NCAA tournament run, eventually losing in the national semifinals to St. Cloud State.
“Last year, losing in the frozen four, the program has never been there at the division one level. Losing at that level, it’s the final four teams, it just lit a fire under our asses for this year knowing that we could get back there, everybody is motivated to get back there because it was a really great experience to get there.”
It doesn’t appear as if Minnesota State is slowing down anytime soon, off to a 7-3 start, 3-1 in conference play. Smith leads the team in goals with five, assists with eight and points with 13.
He’s also averaging a team best 1.30 points per game.
There’s a lot of hockey left to be played, hockey that Smith and the Mavericks hope to be playing into the beginning of April when the Frozen Four is held in Boston.
Whenever his season does come to an end, a phone call from the Jets is likely coming. And in that phone call, likely an offer to turn pro will come, too.
“At the end of the season, yeah, I would like to say I’m ready for that. Honestly, I don’t know anything right now,” said Smith. “I would just like to get through this season and keep doing my thing here and hopefully those opportunities will come.”
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