But since retiring as a player 10 years ago, Nilson has stayed out of the pro game, instead choosing to invest his time in youth hockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe a few years ago, I started thinking, it’d be nice to get back into hockey,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd now, I’m really excited. Especially, if I was going to get back into it over here, I wanted to work for the Flames.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nilson expects to spend the majority of his time scouting in his native Sweden and Finland, but added his time here in Calgary this week will involve plenty of strategy talk with other area scouts.<\/p>\n
But in his post-career life, Nilson has also been afforded the opportunity to be a Dad. Those responsibilities included watching his son, Eric, develop into an NHL prospect.<\/p>\n
The younger Nilson – who was born in Calgary – heard his name called at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles this past June, going 45th overall to the Anaheim Ducks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he’s gone the same road as every other young player, you know,\u201d said Nilson. \u201cI loved playing the game and just taking it year by year and just having fun and all of a sudden, you’re at the age where you have the possibility of getting drafted and and then that happens, it just goes by so fast, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good time for him. Me and my wife were excited for him to get drafted, now he can focus on trying to become an NHL player, he has a long road ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across the road from the Scotiabank Saddledome, Nilson took note of that giant construction site, too, that will soon be the new home of the Flames.<\/p>\n
While the \u2018Dome brings back a flood of memories and emotions, Nilson\u2019s excited to see Scotia Place come to life.<\/p>\n
Excited for what lies ahead for the organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis place, it\u2019s in good shape,\u201d he reflected, peering toward the hallway leading out of the Flames dressing room. \u201cBut obviously, the new building would be exciting for the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But since retiring as a player 10 years ago, Nilson has stayed out of the pro game, instead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-163711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}