Former No. 2 overall pick Nolan Patrick has hit another obstacle as he attempts to get some traction in his NHL career. According to Jesse Granger, the Vegas Golden Knights center will not play this season. Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon announced the news on the eve of training camp.
In an injury-plagued 2021-22 season, Patrick’s first with the Golden Knights, he scored seven points in 25 games played.
Patrick was selected behind only Nico Hischier is the 2017 NHL Draft. He played his junior career for the Brandon Wheat Kings of the WHL, scoring 205 points in 163 games. The defining moment of his junior years was the 2015-16 Wheat Kings playoff run. During the 2016 WHL playoffs, Patrick scored 13 goals and 30 points in 21 games played, leading the team in points.
Although there were concerns about his injury history prior to his draft selection, the Flyers were comfortable playing Patrick in the NHL in his first season following the draft. In 73 games that season, he scored a respectable 13 goals and 30 points. He posted positive faceoff numbers as a rookie, winning 50.6% of 743 draws taken that season.
The 2017-18 season proved to be a statistical repeat of Patrick’s rookie season. In his sophomore year, he scored 13 goals and 31 points in 72 games, eerily similar to the previous season.
In the 2021 offseason, Patrick was traded twice in one day on July 17. First, he was traded by the Flyers with Phillippe Myers to Nashville for Ryan Ellis. Just hours later, he was traded from Nashville to Vegas for Cody Glass.
Unfortunately, the next two years weren’t as kind to Patrick as the first two of his career. He played a combined 77 games in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, respectively. In that span, he scored a total of 16 points and posted a less-than-satisfactory -29 rating.
Patrick ranks sixth among 2017 draftees in games played and 14th in points.
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