the 40-win mark like the
past two seasons, McGuire
likes the performance from
himself and his team.
“I’m satisfied with the way
I’ve played, with the numbers
I’ve put up this year. I thought
I’ve played my best and did my
best to help out our team, as
well as we did,” McGuire said.
“I’m happy with the way our
team has played and competed
throughout this year. There’s
been a couple of mishaps, here
and there, that might have
been games we should have
won. I think we’ve just got to
move forward from that and
continue to grind this little
stretch out and playoffs will
be here before we know it.”
McGuire believes
confidence is the reason for
putting up the best numbers
of his junior hockey career.
“I had the skills to be able
to do it. It was just a matter of
time before I did it,” he said.
Clearwater, a hamlet
approximately 200 km
southwest of Winnipeg, was
the hometown of the McGuire
family and where Nolan
learned how to play hockey.
At the age of 14, he and his
family moved east to Winkler.
Nolan, along with defenseman
Mitchell Dyck, are the only
players on the Flyers who
actually hail from the city
of over 12,500 residents.
“At the time, I didn’t really
know who the Flyers were
until probably, almost the time
I moved to Winkler,” McGuire
said. “When I moved here, I
started watching them a little
bit and I set out a little goal
for me to play junior hockey,
whether it be Winkler or not.”
He later played for the
Pembina Valley Hawks in
the Manitoba AAA Midget
Hockey League, but not before
being left undrafted by every
MJHL team. He scored only
nine goals and five assists
for 14 points in his final year
of midget hockey. When he
joined Winkler in 2014, the
Flyers came off a season where
they only won 20 games. After
scoring four goals and four
assists in his rookie season,
his totals increased each year,
over the next three seasons.
Pearson believes McGuire’s
work ethic is one of his
greatest attributes.
“He’s a good leader. He’s
well-respected in the room.
He’s one of the first guys
there in the morning and
one of the last guys to leave
“
I HAD
THE SKILLS
TO BE ABLE
TO DO IT. IT
WAS JUST
A MATTER
OF TIME
BEFORE I
DID IT
”
3 4 | G AME ON | PL AYOF F EDITION 2018
in the afternoon when
everything’s done,” Pearson
said. “He’s a guy that we
have leaned on heavily…
He’s what the Winkler Flyers
are about. He’s a hard-
working guy, no-nonsense.”
Another one of McGuire’s
attributes, Pearson added, is
his work with the community.
He and his Flyers teammates
volunteer at many youth
athletic programs, including
CanSkate. This February,
many of the players have
visited elementary schools
in the area for I Love to
Read month. During the
summer, the team takes
part in parades at Winkler’s
Harvest Festival and Morden’s
Corn and Apple Festival.
“(The people of Winkler)
are the biggest reason that we
have this team,” McGuire said.
“Our team’s community-based
and for us to go out and give
back, it’s huge. I think we all
do as much as we possibly can
to show our appreciation.”
McGuire plans to continue
playing competitive hockey
after his time with the Flyers.
He is interested in either
playing university hockey in
Canada or for a Division III
college in the United States.
But what has eluded McGuire
is the opportunity to play
for the Turnbull Cup. The
Flyers have been eliminated
in the semifinals -- including
a seven-game loss to the
Steinbach Pistons in 2016 --
the past two seasons. Winkler
has not reached the MJHL
final since 2002 and has not
won the title since 1998.
“It leaves a sour taste in
your mouth after two years
in a row of getting eliminated
in the semifinals,” he said. “If
we get that opportunity this
year, we’re going to push that
much harder in the finals.” ❍