ST. LOUIS -- It just seems like a good spot for Nathan Walker to be in.
The St. Louis Blues forward, in an effort to find stability and carve out his own niche to the NHL, found a real home finally.
After two seasons of plodding his way through two organizations (Washington Capitals and Edmonton Oilers) and even trying to find his way in St. Louis the first two seasons, Walker has a spot he likes and on Tuesday prior to facing the Florida Panthers, Walker and the Blues put pen to paper on a new two-year, one-way extension through the 2025-26 season for $775,000 per season.
Blues forward Nathan Walker (26) has a great scoring chance last Thursday against Thatcher Demko (35) and the Vancouver Canucks."It's just nice obviously to stay for another two years. It's huge," Walker said. "I love it here, love the guys, love the organization, my family loves it. It's definitely nice."
Walker, 29, a third-round pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, has been around the world literally trying to make his hockey career go, starting at Vitkovice in the Czech Republic in 2007 to playing briefly in Sydney, Australia before going back to the Czech Republic, then to the United States Hockey League in Youngstown, Ohio, then to Washington's AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, to South Carolina of the ECHL, back to Hershey before finally getting a crack with the Capitals in 2017-18.
He signed with the Blues in 2019-20 and has been in the organization since, whether it be at San Antonio or St. Louis, a brief stint in Utica to Springfield and back to St. Louis, the Blues finally gave Walker his most extended stay in the NHL with 30 games in 2021-22 and 56 games last season.
"Obviously it's been a long path," Walker said. "Everyone takes different ways and different routes to get to where they want to do and mine was a little bit different. Obviously I thank all the people that helped me along the way."
Blues interim coach Drew Bannister had Walker with the Thunderbirds earlier in the season and in 2021-22 and knows the character Walker brings.
"He's just a quality person," Bannister said. "That's the biggest thing that stands out to me over just the playing how well he fits in the room, how well he leads as a player whether in the American Hockey League or up here. He's well-liked but just a quality person overall.
"Obviously he plays in the top line down there, but his game hasn't changed at all. He's a direct player, he's hard to play against, he gets in on the forecheck, he uses his ability, his speed to create offense and he goes to the hard areas and he gets rewarded. We saw that in the last two games. He had a real quality chance here against Vancouver driving to the net, finding that puck to the net, he wasn't able to finish and in Carolina he was able to use his speed, get behind the 'D,' great play by 'Sunny' and then he was able to finish that play off."
The Blues' style seems to fit Walker, who has 23 points (11 goals, 12 assists) in 88 games with St. Louis.
"It's a pretty north-south game," Walker said. "I think that feeds into the way thatI like to play. I think the culture of the organization definitely helps me. I just enjoy it so much here.
"I think that comes from all the players on the team and the organization. I think that speaks highly of them. I felt pretty comfortable coming in."
