Nic Dowd was thinking about quitting hockey eight years ago. How did Lloyd Donnelly help convince him otherwise?
Nic Dowd's road to Xcel Energy Center for his NHL debut last night almost ended in St. Louis eight years ago.
That's when the NAHL's St. Louis Bandits traded the 18-year-old to the Wenatchee Wild. Dowd was despondent. After all, he didn't even want to be in the NAHL in the first place. He had tried out for the USHL, the premier junior hockey league in the US, and hadn't made the cut.