Photo by Alena Schwarz
In his third professional season, Hershey Bears forward Nathan Walker has received his club’s nomination for the Yanick Dupre Memorial Award. It is his first nomination for the league award.
Walker, though he was technically born in Wales, is the first Australian to ever play in the AHL. His community involvement has increased significantly over the course of his three seasons, most of which came in this current season.
Last season, the Bears granted the Club’s nomination to Mike Moore for the fourth time in his eight seasons in the American League.
Walker’s cult hero status in his Australian hometown of Sydney is indisputable for the island nation with three hockey leagues to call their own, including a youth league, a professional league, and a recently formed Women’s league. According to a profile on Walker in The Guardian from November, there are 4,264 registered players and 30 ice rinks in Australia.
The 22-year-old forward has set the bar for his Bears teammates in his volunteer work. He lead the “Roaring to Read” program that the Bears set up in local schools, rewarding students with game tickets for reading.
He remained active in the Club’s promotion of health, participating in the “Pink in the Rink” and “Movember” fundraisers. Walker also joined teammates on their trips to Penn State Children’s Hospital to visit sick children and brighten their day.
Earlier this month, Walker jumped in on an impromptu skate with the American Special Hockey Association at GIANT Center.
Walker has enjoyed a remarkable turnaround from last season when he only played 28 games in the Chocolate and White and six with ECHL South Carolina. An ACL tear kept him out of the Bears’ playoff run last season. This year, he has contributed 16 goals and 23 assists in 66 games played out of 67, good enough for fourth on the Bears leading scorers list behind Travis Boyd, Riley Barber, and Chris Bourque.
Similar to the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy in the NHL, one member of each AHL team recieves a nomination for the IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year award. The nomination is awarded by the club, not the writers as it is in the NHL, for the player’s outstanding contributions to the community in their town.
He is one of the league’s 30 finalists for the award, which will be given to the winner at the end of the season.
Walker and the Bears look to continue their playoffs push with games in Hartford and Providence this weekend.
