CEDAR RAPIDS – Check out his page on the internet hockey database www.hockeydb.com. It’s all you need to know about Nico Blachman’s career.
Never in one place for too long. Never in one league for too long.
Never quit, keep playing the game he loves until no one gives him a sweater anymore. He has played for 20 junior, college and professional teams in 10 years, the 20th being the Iowa Heartlanders.
“My journey has been long, but, honestly, my hockey journey has been my life,” said Blachman, a winger who will turn 26 Thursday. “I left home at 13, and ever since it has kind of been a new team every season, a new place to live. You meet a lot of people. Yeah, it has been long, it has been eventful. But it’s been awesome, it’s been great. It’s made me who I am today.”
There’s very little about the engaging Blachman’s story that’s not interesting. He grew up in Aventura, Fla., a kid who played roller hockey before transferring over to ice.
He went to prep school at Shattuck-Saint Mary’s in Minnesota, where one of his teammates was Arizona Coyotes forward Clayton Keller.
“I had 24 points in 50 games, and he had 163 points in 50 games,” Blachman said.