Noah Dower-Nilsson Undeterred Amid Second Shoulder Rehab
After two separate surgeries to repair torn labrums in the past year, Red Wings third round pick Noah Dower-Nilsson continues to rehab his injuries with an aim to return to the ice this August
Courtesy of Frölunda Hockey Club - Noah Dower-Nilsson Undeterred Amid Second Shoulder RehabIt was supposed to be a great opportunity when Frölunda forward Noah Dower-Nilsson went on loan to Björklöven back in January. More minutes, a bigger role, the chance to play again with his older brother, Liam. Who could ask for more?
It took less than four minutes of ice time for those plans to fall apart. The aftermath of a hit popped his shoulder out of socket and tore his labrum.
Again.
See, this game was just Dower-Nilsson’s eighth of the 2023-24 season, a year he started late recovering from surgery that repaired a torn labrum on his left shoulder. This time — after months rehabbing the left — Dower-Nilsson tore the labrum in his right. He was right back on square one.
“That shoulder injury was very tough because I had just come back from the first surgery,” Dower-Nilsson told The Hockey News. “And I feel that I played very good hockey and feel my body and everything that feels so good. So it was tough.”
But Dower-Nilsson’s tough, too. Over the course of the past five months, the Red Wings’ 2023 third round pick has gutted out shoulder rehab the same as the first time, trying to not only catch up on missed time but also come back better than ever. In the process, Dower-Nilsson has grown more resilient in his hockey career.
Dower-Nilsson’s shoulder struggles date back to his draft year in 2022-23, when his left shoulder popped out during a game. He tried to rehab the injury without surgery, believing that this would fix the issue and allow him to keep playing. It wasn’t until after the Red Wings selected him in the 2023 draft that he learned the extent of his injuries.
The draft itself was an occasion for Detroit to do some due diligence. With both Noah and Liam Dower-Nilsson (a 2021 fourth round pick) in the U.S. for the big occasion as well as development camp, the Red Wings checked in some wear and tear the brothers had gone through playing in Sweden. Both got MRIs. Noah’s came back worse than previously thought. Mere weeks after drafting him, the Red Wings advised Noah to get surgery.
“It came very fast for me, but I think I trust Detroit so much,” Noah said. “(There are) so, so, so many good people there so I didn’t think so much about it. I just talked with my agent, Peter (Werner), and he said if they say you need a surgery, do it.”
So, Noah got the operation done in Detroit last July, but that was just the first step. Afterward, Noah needed to undergo months of rehab work to get his shoulder in playing shape. At the same time, he also had to keep the rest of his body in shape, too.
For that, he went back home to Sweden and his main club, Frölunda. That’s where he got to work with his strength coach, Pär Edlund. Edlund has worked for Frölunda since 2001, training a who’s who of Swedish stars such as Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond. This experience helped him craft a proper solution to keep Noah’s body in shape. It also helped him train Noah’s mind.
It takes a lot of trust between a trainer and a player to get the most out of each other. When gym exercises are often a player’s battle against their own body, a strength coach is one of the few people fighting alongside them. When there’s an injury, they’re one of the people most responsible with guiding a player through the process. During Noah’s rehab workouts, he and Edlund went to battle.
“He just went with me in the gym, and we’d have a one on one talk about life or practice or the NHL or whatever,” Edlund told The Hockey News. “And if you work with someone, for me it’s important for me to know the guy I work with. It’s important we have some trust between two people if you want to get something out of him.”
But before they could get the most out of Noah’s workouts, they faced a problem: Most traditional workouts required the use of his upper body, and that was a no-go for a while with his left shoulder out of commission. Early on, he could only train his lower body, and only perform exercises that avoided arm movement.
In other words, there was no skipping leg day.
“In the beginning, we couldn't have a tough leg day,” Edlund said. “We had to have leg days every day with something. And then when his shoulder is getting better, then we can increase the load and have a few days off and so on. But from the beginning, we work with his legs every day a bit.”
Lunges. Single leg squats. Bulgarian split squats. Eccentric KBox exercises. After months of work — in the meantime missing the start of the Swedish season and Sweden’s World Junior Summer Showcase camp in the U.S. — Noah finally got back on the ice in December. And when he took the ice, all those leg exercises paid off. He was flying.
“After the first surgery on my left shoulder, I feel that I came back being very much stronger in my legs (than) before I did the surgery,” Noah said. “I know that I need to be stronger so that’s also positive for me and my development to be a better hockey player.”
On a senior team that had largely figured out its lineup without him, though, Noah could only get sparing minutes. As a 19-year-old winger, experience through playing games is valuable to development, so Frölunda sent him to Björklöven on loan.
One game, one hit, and one more injured shoulder later, Noah was right back where he started.
Much like his first shoulder injury, Noah tried to recover by rehabbing the injury for five weeks. He played one more game in mid-February and felt better, but his shoulder felt sore afterward. The Red Wings wanted him to get surgery on the right shoulder, too. Noah came back to Detroit in February for round two.
“It is really important for me to just stay patient and don’t stress up,” Noah said. “Just stay positive and look forward, how are we gonna come back stronger.”
The stressors to the situation were plentiful. The frustration of repeating everything he’d already done was apparent, adding in the pressure to prove himself in his draft-plus-one season.
“You get drafted and want to play hockey and show more of me for the team, for the (draft) choice,” Noah said. “So it was tough but the important thing is to be patient and staying in the right mindset.”
Noah embraced his recovery path and grinded the same as before. But it really wasn’t the same. Edlund has noticed a bit of fire burning since Noah began his second rehab plan. He’s broken personal bests in his exercises. He’s taking more passion in his workouts than ever before.
“That's good for him to understand that if I work hard, I get something for it,” Edlund said. “(Not just) do things on the paper but do it with passion, and the passion will get me the results I want.” Later, Edlund added “It’s never good to have an injury, but for him, I think mentally it has helped him to get much more mature.”
Not everyone gets that. In Edlund’s career as a strength coach, he’s worked with plenty of players who have a tremendous amount of talent but lack the work ethic to make the most of it. No amount of skill can make up for the missing effort to maximize it. When the gap in skill between players becomes smaller and smaller, effort is the trait that differentiates the good from the great.
“I try to make sure that they understand that they have to be competitive and they have to compete everyday, on the ice and in the gym too. You have to compete there, too, with yourself,” Edlund said. “... You can do it with some passion, or you can do it just to do it. The passionate ones get better, and the ones that just do what’s on the paper, they’re pretty much the same guys after one year, two years and then the train has left the station.”
Noah hopped on board that figurative train, even when injury trouble could have left him on the platform. This allowed him to make the most of what could have been a truly lost U19 season.
“It was a big year for him, too,” Edlund said. “He swallowed it and said ‘Let’s go. I’m gonna be there. I’m gonna work hard to get there.’ So I think he grew a lot mentally through this stage.”
Where that train is going is up to Noah. He’s aiming to make his return to playing in August. Meanwhile, Frölunda just signed him to a two-year extension in April. He figures to find a larger role with the main club with health and development.
Noah also plans to come over to Detroit for development camp in July, even if he might not be able to drill and scrimmage with a lot of other prospects. “I don’t know how much I can do exactly,” Noah said of camp, though he plans to check in with his doctors who performed the surgery, as well as Red Wings management.
Such opportunities wouldn’t be possible without Noah’s commitment to his own comeback, an obstacle that he didn’t shy away from even when he had to go through the same steps. Now, he’s ready to make the most of his past year of recovery and development to seize his upcoming opportunity.
Again.
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