Flamand benefits from shared experience

When Nolan Flamand says it’s his teammates he’ll remember from his five seasons in the Western Hockey League, he says it in a way that makes perfect sense.

The 21-year Brandon Wheat Kings forward from Saskatoon, whose team was eliminated in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the Lethbridge Hurricanes on April 4, is still friends with guys he met in his first camp when he was 16.

“You’re all kids when you come into this league and you’re all kind of scared but you get to grow up with these guys in the same way,” Flamand said. “You think, ‘I’m probably the only guy that thinks this way,’ but it’s nope, there are a hundred other guys thinking the exact same thing and going through the same thing you are.

“When you come together like you do every single day, whether it’s working out or yoga or having a bite to eat after practice, I’m going to miss it. I’ve obviously got more bonds to create but I get why the WHL is so fun. You turn from a kid into a man, and you get to do it with 22 guys and it’s very special.”

Flamand was the first pick of the 2019 draft by the Kelowna Rockets when he was chosen 27th overall after a year with the Saskatoon Blazers in the highly competitive Saskatchewan Male U18 AAA Hockey League when he posting 27 points in 41 games as an underage 14-year-old forward.

“It was very meaningful,” Flamand said. “Especially at that age, I was wanting to get into this league as fast as I could, I wanted to get exceptional status and be the next Sidney Crosby, so to finally make a step into the league was very special for me and I was very excited to see what I was going to learn and get out of this league.”

Unfortunately for the class of 2019, their collective timing was bad. They entered the league as 16-year-olds in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season.

Nevertheless, Flamand posted seven points in 16 games in the spring of 2021.

“It was adapting to the speed of things, known that everything was going to be quicker,” Flamand said. “Also it was the mentality, the want, that I’m going to be better than every single one of these guys on the ice no matter whether they’re going to the NHL, it didn’t matter what kind of status you had, you had to work and want it more than ever. You had to believe in yourself, and that’s what I adapted in my last two years.”

WHL players grow up in a hothouse that’s unique to what other teenagers experience. Not many teenagers get off a bus at 7 in the morning after travelling all night and are at school by 9, or recognized as role models in the community.

“That was the biggest shock to me,” Flamand said. “I think it was something I wasn’t ready for when I came to this league. I thought I was going to even an easier ride. I thought there was going to be way more support and you were also have a hand along the way but you don’t.

“I think that’s why it’s so hard for young players to come into this league and do what they did in their last years of midget. It’s not that simple. It’s a grind and making some good plays and also making some bad plays, going through some good stretches and also going through some bad stretches.

“You grow up and you start to realize you can’t win everything, you can’t be perfect, you can’t go through life on a straight paved road. There are always bumps and everything will be in the way.”

He said it’s key to never let anyone fundamentally change who you are as a player, because those abilities got you there and will eventually help you overcome any bad times. When he was 16, Flamand was able to stay with his sister Alanna, who already lived in Kelowna, which cut down on his transition off the ice.

His parents Clint and Joanna moved from Saskatoon to Kelowna prior to his 17-year-old year, so he was able to live with them for the rest of his tenure with the Rockets.

In the 2021-22 season, Flamand finished seventh in team scoring on a talented Rockets roster with 10 goals and 30 assists in 60 games during the 2021-22 campaign. He credited the team’s overagers, forward Mark Liwiski of Dauphin and defencemen Tyson Feist and Jake Lee, as being especially helpful in his first full season.

“They helped me grow up and realize a lot of things about this league very quick,” Flamand said. “They were very helpful and took me under their wing. It was good to learn their ways.”

NEW CHALLENGE

A significant change lay ahead.

At the trade deadline on Jan. 10, 2023, Brandon acquired Flamand from Kelowna in return for his summer hockey buddy, Trae Johnson of nearby Martensville, a third-round pick in 2023 and a fifth-round pick in 2024.

“We always made jokes about it so accidentally bringing it into the universe might have been our bad,” Flamand said with a chuckle about his family.

Flamand had four goals, 16 assists and 10 penalty minutes in 35 games with Kelowna at the time of the deal.

“It obviously was a hard day but I was more excited than kind of nervous,” Flamand said. “I thought this was the shock or the restart button that I needed and was looking for. Honestly, moving away from my family was super tough and I didn’t want it to happen but it needed to happen for me to grow up and become a man and battle all those tough situations.

“I was excited and nervous at the same time.”

He posted nine goals and six assists in 28 games in Brandon the rest of the season. He earned praise for his hockey IQ and doing all the little things that don’t show up on the scoresheet but make a player indispensable.

“It was very good,” Flamand said. “It brought a lot of confidence back into me to get into an organization like Brandon and to allow me to be me. They didn’t see anything I needed to change in my game and just believed in me improving it, and they did that very well, which allowed me to grow the way I did and have the seasons I did. That was special and I’m very grateful.”

In his 19-year-old campaign a year ago, he set career highs with 20 goals and 44 points as a Wheat King but still found himself battling for one of three 20-year-old jobs last fall at training camp. With the acquisition of forward Marcus Nguyen and defenceman Luke Shipley seemingly guaranteed a spot with a young blue-line, the five-foot-nine, 181-pound Flamand was facing off against four-year Wheat Kings veteran Rylen Roersma for the final overage spot.

After Roersma and Flamand both dressed once on opening weekend, the decision was officially settled on Sept. 24 when Brandon shipped Roersma to the Edmonton Oil Kings for a second-round pick in 2026 and fifth-round pick in 2027.

Flamand had six points in his first three games, weathered a four-game streak without a point, and then became a regular contributor for the rest of the season, finishing with career highs of 23 goals, 45 assists and 68 points in 67 games to win the team’s scoring race.

“I was 100 per cent capable of it, it just took me some time to find that confidence and get my game back to show the league and myself and my teammates and my family and everyone that I could do it,” Flamand said. “I’m proud of myself to finally break through it.”

In 276 career regular season games, he had 67 goals, 123 assists and 190 points for a 0.69 average per game. In 14 playoff games, he had three goals and seven assists. He said confidence played a key role as his production increased.

“It’s one of the hardest skills to learn and to consistently have day in and day out,” Flamand said. “You can work out every single day with confidence or not, and you can practice every day with confidence or not, but playing a game and getting that one shot and the confidence when it happens once, it’s a very hard skill to master and very hard skill to carry on every single day.

“That’s something every player should start learning from day one, to be confident with whatever happens and whether things go wrong or things go right, you just have to stick to that confidence and be mentally strong throughout the whole journey.”

GRATITUDE

While he may have been excited about the trade to Brandon in 2023, he didn’t completely understand what lay ahead. As it turned out, it was the perfect landing spot.

“I’m thankful to the organization just for seeing me as a special player here,” Flamand said. “They saw that they were going to see great things from me here so I’m very grateful … I’m also grateful for this team that I was able to spend my last year with. This was one of the tightest teams I’ve had and I only wish the best for every single one of them. Brandon has a lot of great young talent here that is going to make something happen.”

“And last but not least, I’m thankful for my parents. They’ve been my rock and been so helpful since day one. They’ve sacrificed everything from waking up up at 6 a.m., to flying four hours here or driving 13 and battling to support me. They’ve done nothing but an amazing job.

“Alanna has been a great support for me too and I love them very much.”

Part of the appeal of Brandon was geographic.

Players can billet up to 30 minutes apart in Kelowna, but Flamand lived very near his close friend Jackson DeSouza, who was also traded to the Wheat Kings last year. They hung out together every day in Kelowna and forged a tight bond.

In much smaller Brandon, the proximity of the billets allowed everyone that luxury.

“It creates a brotherhood a lot quicker than it usually does,” Flamand said. “I think a lot of guys experience brotherhood at the rink but they don’t really understand a brother outside, what kind of foods they like to eat or what their fun activities are to do. When you’re away from the rink, you learn a different side of them and you want to eat a puck with your face for them.

“You would do anything for them on the ice, and it creates such a better bond because they learn so much about them, as much as you learn about yourself when you get to see different lifestyles and different beliefs that other people carry. It changes your mindset a bit.”

In a bit of an unusual situation for a player produced in one province and then playing in two others, Flamand didn’t need his own billets until he was 18 after the trade. In Brandon, he lived with Bryan and Amber White, who have three older kids.

“They were great,” Flamand said. “I’m very grateful for the family I had here. They had a lot of experience with a lot of other players so they were very respectful of letting me learn my way into billeting, because I never really billeted before. To finally learn to live on my own and take more responsibility, they definitely helped me a lot around the house and made it very easy for me to stay in my own space here. They were very welcoming.”

Flamand left the White family to head back to Saskatoon on Wednesday, and is actually on the ice this weekend in a First Nation hockey tournament in North Battleford.

His longer-term future remains uncertain. While Shipley and Nguyen have both committed to American colleges, Flamand is still considering his new step, including pro hockey.

“Obviously that’s the ultimate goal,” Flamand said. “I’m still leaving a lot of options open … Going pro would be a childhood dream that I’m still trying to chase. I’ll just have to keep working.”

While he’s striding into the future, Flamand remains grateful for the five-year experience he’s leaving behind. The biggest shock is that it’s already over.

“It went way too fast,” Flamand said. “When I was 16, my overagers kept telling me it goes by so quick and it was ‘No way, I have so much time to work with. “Now I’m 21 and about to move on to the next chapter in my life and it feels like yesterday I was drafted into the WHL and I was just going to make a step into this league and now I’m actually taking a step out of this league.

“It’s crazy but it’s also great to see how much improvement you’ve had over your journey.”

» This three-part look at Brandon’s three graduating overagers began Thursday with Luke Shipley and continued Friday with Marcus Nguyen.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com