In another very special episode in our Beyond The Ice series, we sit down and chat with the man, the myth, the legend, Nico Blachman.
Nico is a pro hockey player who plays in the ECHL for the Iowa Heartlanders, where he acts an a Alternate Captain, and he recently got called up to the AHL with the Iowa Wild, so Marlies fans can expect to see him next season.
In this episode, Nico chats about the alternative path he took to pro hockey and offers a mountain of advice to young and aspiring hockey players.
He also chats about the work the Professional Hockey Players Association does and discusses an organization that he co-founder in SoFlo. SoFlo puts on tournaments in South Florida and hosts a lot of NHL, AHL, ECHL and KHL players in addition to some insanely talent youngsters.
We briefly talked about The BuzzPod, which is an absolute must listen for AHL fans and the wider hockey community. It's hosted by Nico and The Commander in Chief himself, Zach Solow and they have some amazing guests on each and every week, so make sure you give them a listen.
Finally, Nico has offered to answer any questions that young fans may have via his Instagram account, so feel free to reach out to him directly or via the BuzzPod account.
We end the interview with fan questions and our usual quick fire round, although our superstar quizmaster Ben wasn't available so Davy had to fill in for him. Heres a headsup, Davy wasn't as good as Ben normally is!!