\n
\n
\n
![\"Nathan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/nathan-walker_-nhl-star-sharks-super-fan_002-1-1.jpg\"\/)
\n
\n
\n Nathan Walker and his family.
\n \u00a9Channel Nine broadcast
\n
\n <\/p>\n
Although better known as a trailblazer in America in his chosen sport, Australia\u2019s first ever National Hockey League player Nathan Walker makes sure he has time to keep up with the NRL.<\/p>\n
Born in Wales before moving to Sydney as a child, Walker grew up supporting his favourite team Cronulla Sharks, even making his into their Academy system.<\/p>\n
However, his love for ice hockey – a sport where he showed great promise from a young age – saw him make the move firstly to Europe, before making history in America.<\/p>\n
Walker made his NHL debut with Washington Capitals in 2017, winning the Stanley Cup with the team in 2018, and he is now part of the St Louis Blues squad.<\/p>\n
Described as a speedster, the left wing spoke to Cronulla\u2019s 2016 premiership winning captain Paul Gallen about how he came to the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously finding ice and ice rinks back home is a bit tough, so at the age of 13, I moved over to the Czech Republic (now Czechia) and played there for a few years and then, kind of transitioned over here,\u201d Walker said on the Channel Nine broadcast.<\/p>\n
Despite being half a world away during the season and preoccupied by pucks, and the occasional, fully-sanctioned bare knuckle fist fight on the ice, Walker and his family like to get out to live NRL games whenever he can.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n Nathan Walker and his family.
\n \u00a9Channel Nine broadcast
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI live in Woolooware, so we’re really close to the stadium and whenever I get a chance to go with my wife and kids, we tend to pop our heads in for a match here and there,” Walker said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the Sharks have always been the number one rugby team in our household.<\/p>\n
\u201c(When the Sharks won the grand final in 2026), I was in Hershey at the time trying to explain the game to all my buddies over here, how big of a deal it is that the Sharks won the final.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Was) trying to explain all that; it’s the Stanley Cup of the rugby (world) it’s the pinnacle of the sport and then they kind of grasp it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m showing them clips of you guys going at it head-to-head and they’re obviously thinking that all the rugby players are absolute nail guns just running around with no gear on and everything like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s good, they’re really intrigued over here about the sport and it’s just nice to kind of bring that awareness to the hockey community as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Awareness of ice hockey and the NHL is also growing in Australia, with Walker saying the physical nature of the sport naturally appeals to the Aussie sports fan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think it’s just the pace, the physicality of it, I think is what draws the Aussie nation into it,” Walker said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, you look at the popular sports back home, rugby (league), rugby union, it’s that physicality.”<\/p>\n
*Channel Nine and NHL announced an exclusive free-to-air media partnership to bring live ice hockey to Australian fans for the 2025\/2026 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although better known as a trailblazer in America in his chosen sport, Australia\u2019s first ever National Hockey League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-571772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}