Originally a baseball and soccer player, right winger Owen Nolan began playing ice hockey at the age of nine. Ireland-born, he moved to Ontario at the age of seven months and spent 1988 through 1990 as a member of the Cornwall Royals of the Ontario Hockey League prior to being drafted by the Quebec Nordiques of the National Hockey League in 1990. In the OHL he won the Emms Family Award as league Rookie of The Year in 1989 and the Jim Mahon Memorial Trophy as the top scoring right winger in 1990. Aside from six games with the Halifax Citadels of the American Hockey League during his first season, he stayed with the Nordiques until the 1995-1996 season (when they became the Colorado Avalanche), at which point he was traded to the league’s San Jose Sharks. His long tenure with the team lasted until 2003 (captaining the squad from 1998 until his departure) and along the way he made an appearance for Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics, suiting up for six matches and taking home one of Canada’s first Olympic ice hockey gold medals in a half century. He also appeared on the front cover of Electronic Arts’ NHL 2001 video game for the PlayStation. He was traded to the Toronto Maple leafs for the final half of the 2002-2003 season, but emerged after the 2004-2005 NHL Lockout and a year off to nurse a knee injury as a member of the Phoenix Coyotes. He spent the following two seasons with the Calgary Flames (2007-2008) and the Minnesota Wild (2008-2009). Outside of hockey he occasionally hosts the Canadian “Fish TV” program and owns the Brittania Arms restaurants in San Jose, California.
Canada