#nolan. the tragedy that is a SOA. the 2017 draft class. ops poems.

[nicohischier]

thoughts on nolan patrick induced brainrot

Oh so many thoughts. All the thoughts. Too many thoughts.

Here’s the thing with Nolan, okay? His story so far has always been fairly synonymous with tragedy. You can argue with that statement if you want, but so much of his career so far just points in the direction of a tragedy, at least in my eyes.

Let me first start this off by telling you that Nolan Patrick can be and has been described by three characteristics: injury prone, second overall, and draft bust. They’re not his only characteristics, but they are the ones used most frequently to talk about him since 2017.

(by the way. this is 2000 words long. so. open with caution?)

Injury Prone  – Juniors Version

In his first season after being drafted by the Wheat Kings in the 2013 WHL Draft, he was called up because the Wheat Kings had a lot of their own injuries but he wasn’t able to play during that call up because he had a shoulder injury. In his rookie year the following season, he missed a dozen games with an upper body injury. At the end of his 2015-16 season he revealed that he was suffering a sports hernia he had been playing through. In 2016-17, his draft season, Nolan only played a few games before the Wheat Kings announced that he wasn’t fully healed from the sports hernia and he was out for most of the season (he ended up playing 33 games that season) and missed playing in World Juniors. 

Then, after he was drafted, he missed his first development camp with the Flyers because he was recovering from a surgery he had gotten done before the draft. 

Despite all the injuries haunting him, he still was a top rated prospect and, fun fact, was actually rated higher than Nico. 

Unfortunately, however, the injuries didn’t stop following him just because he switched from the WHL to the NHL. 

Injury Prone – NHL Version

He was actually fairly healthy for his first two seasons in Philly. He missed some games in his rookie season after a rough hit, but those were the only games he missed. Again, in his sophomore season he missed a few games but there was nothing super drastic. And then the 2019 offseason came around. 

Some time before the 2019-20 season Nolan was officially diagnosed with chronic migraines and he ended up missing the entire season. He might have made a return late in the season, but COVID ended the season early, so we’ll never know. He did play when the 2020-21 season started up but he didn’t perform very well (which isn’t entirely shocking considering he was coming back after a year and a half (?) of not playing NHL hockey and he himself admitted to taking his return a bit more tentatively because he was worried about his migraines).

Then, before the 2021-22 season started Nolan hired a new agent and got himself traded to Vegas (with a pit stop in Nashville for all of five minutes or whatever). He got injured a few games into that season, played a total of 25 games, and hasn’t played a game since the end of that season. Presumably that fact has something to do with injury or recovery but don’t quote me on that.

The point is that while Nolan didn’t deal with the constant yoyoing of injured-healthy-injured-healthy that he was dealing with while in juniors, what he was dealing with after coming into the NHL is ultimately a lot more serious and will have a much larger impact on the future of his career. 

Second Overall – The 2017 Entry Draft

I know we were just talking about the NHL but we actually have to drop back to the 2017 Draft and the time just before the draft because this is obviously the keypoint for the ‘second overall’ characteristic. 

So, I mentioned that prior to the draft, Nolan was technically rated higher than Nico, which is true. Granted, Nico was rated the second top prospect, so not that much higher, but still. What the important takeaway from this is that the 2017 Draft was genuinely a toss-up between Nico and Nolan. Nico going first generally came down to what the Devils were looking for from their selection (and maybe Nolan’s injury history played a part in the Devils picking Nico instead but I can’t be certain). 

Some drafts are more-or-less a guarantee for which prospect is going first (see: 2015, 2016, the upcoming 2023) but 2017 was very much a ??? until the lottery when people could start making speculations about who would most benefit the Devils’ needs.

Anyway, the point is that Nolan was the highest rated prospect going into the draft. 

For a solid while before the draft Nolan was considered THE top pick. But then Halifax brought this kid over from Switzerland and he tore up the QMJHL and all of a sudden there was another prospect breathing down Nolan’s neck when it came to FOA consideration. 

Ultimately, as we all know now, Nico ended up going FOA and Nolan went SOA to the Flyers.

Obviously going SOA isn’t a tragedy in and of itself but you do have to consider the “what could have been?” if Nolan had gone FOA or if Nico had never come over from Switzerland. 

But, to be honest, I’m a huge fan of the general tragedy that haunts SOAs so maybe I’m just focusing way too hard on the SOA part of his story. The reality is that him going second is only a minor blip in the tragedy that is the Nolan Patrick narrative. Him going SOA is just a stepping stone toward the ‘draft bust’ part of his tragedy. 

Draft Bust 

The facts: Nolan went SOA. He has played 222 games. He has scored 32 goals. He has 77 points. He is prone to injury. He has missed two seasons and is not a guarantee to ever come back.

The other facts: there are some incredible players who are having incredible careers who were selected after Nolan. Just some of those players are Miro Heiskanen, 3rd, Cale Makar, 4th, Elias Pettersson, 5th, Nick Suzuki, 13th, Jake Oettinger, 26th, Jason Robertson, 39th, Stuart Skinner, 78th. And that’s just some of the superstar names. I could’ve also mentioned guys who aren’t superstars for their teams but are almost definitely going to make a career out of being Good and Useful.

(and can we take a minute to appreciate how well the dallas stars drafted in 2017? holy shit.)

Disclaimer: I am not saying that Nolan is never going to come back and turn into a superstar or become Good and Useful. I can only work with what I have in front of me, which is what I’ve presented you with.

The tragedy of this, beyond the fact that he is, at least currently, a draft bust, is that the sheer amount of talent behind him will always be tied to his name. He is never going to be Nolan Patrick anymore and the guys behind him (especially Heiskanen, Makar, and Pettersson) are never going to be themselves. They’re all always going to have their draft order tied to their name. The only difference is that when they speak about Heiskanen or Makar or Pettersson people are going to say they should have gone higher. When they speak about Nolan, they’re going to say he should have gone lower.

I could say more probably (definitely) but I’m already at 1200 words and I did actually still want to talk about the poem even though I don’t expect ANYONE to have read this far LMAO. But on the off chance someone is here because they ALSO have super intense nolpat brain rot… hello. It’s just you and me baby. 

The Poem – Frame by Frame (except for the ones I skip)

Frame Two: “it’s the same when love comes to an end” with Nolan facing the camera and the rest of the Flyers facing away, in the background. 

Fairly self-explanatory I think, but sometimes OP places the text in specific locations that make my brain explode and I needed to emphasize the importance of specifically putting “when love comes to an end”  over the Flyers. 

Once upon a time, the Flyers were Nolan’s team and Nolan was supposed to be the Flyers’ future. Their highest draft pick since 2007. Things fell apart and the organization fell out of love with him (did they ever have enough time to fall in love with him?) and he fell out of love with the organization. 

Frame Three: “or the marriage fails and people say they knew it was a mistake” over an aerial shot of Nolan over the Flyers logo.

I mean. All you have to do is change some words, right? The draft fails, people say they knew it was a mistake. 

Draft bust.

Need I say more?

And the solo aerial shot… because who bears the emotional pain of being a failed top prospect? That former top prospect and no one else. He is alone in his knowledge that he wasn’t good enough and he alone must face the words people say about him in the aftermath. 

Frame Six: “like being there by that summer ocean on the other side of the island while love was fading out of him” over a shot of Nolan and some other Flyers on the bench, waiting to give high fives to their teammates.

If I want to overanalyze this I could talk about how ‘the island’ is the Flyers as a team, ‘on the other side’ refers to how he felt distanced from the team or like he was never truly a part of them (because he felt like he was a disappointment?), and ‘while love was fading out of him’ could refer to the fact that Nolan very probably requested his trade out of Philly.

On the other hand, if I wanted to break my own heart, I could talk about how the person whose love was fading out of them is actually the Flyers organization and fans as a vague entity who, once full of love and hope for their first SOA in a decade, were now turning sour on the failed top prospect whose future will probably never stop being shaped like a giant question mark. 

But I don’t want to do either, so let’s pretend I said nothing, okay?

Frame Eight: “the stars burning so extravagantly those nights that anyone could tell you they would never last” over a shot Nolan in a celly with the team.

I actually included the lines on Frame Seven to provide context because I, once again, just want to talk about OP’s placement of the words. Specifically the “they would never last” that sort of outlines Nolan’s figure. 

If I think too hard about it I will get sad so just take a second to think about how bright a SOA must shine for a fanbase and a team and how much everyone always expects from a high draft pick and then just take a moment to appreciate the beauty and pain in OP outlining Nolan with the words “they would never last” and let’s just all agree to move on so I don’t get even more sad.

Frame Nine & Ten: “I believe Icarus was not falling as he fell, but just coming to the end of his triumph” over a shot of Nolan leaving the bench with TK still on it (9) & Nolan in a celly with the team. 

I lumped these two frames because they’re important to go together, right? Not just to keep the full quote intact, but also because it shows that Nolan’s time in Philly wasn’t just a tragedy.

He had guys like TK, who became like a brother to him (at least from the way they portrayed their friendship to the fans) and he had his team who loved him, regardless of the expectations the organization had laid out that he was failing to meet. 

I call his story a tragedy, and I genuinely think it is one, but it is probably wrong to reduce it to solely a tragedy. Maybe his time in Philly contributes to the overall tragedy of his story, but on its own? How can I reduce the love he found in Philly to only a footnote in the overarching tragedy?

#i promise i do also actually talk about the poem too. you just have to scroll a bit 😭 #i just had to get all the brain rot out first #asked and answered #anonymous #sorry dude idk what happened you just brought up like. a combination of some of the things im most insane about #nolan. the tragedy that is a SOA. the 2017 draft class. ops poems.