A World Away, Padden Carves Future on Ice

The drive from Glasgow, Mont. to Laconia, N.H. covers 2,170 miles - 33 hours, for the speed trap-wary traveler. For Ryan Padden, a 2015 Nashua High School graduate and current Tier III Junior Hockey forward for the EHL's New England Wolves, the haul is but a melodic trill in the first movement of his Symphony on Ice.

Padden was first recruited by Wolves' head coach and GM Andrew Trimble in mid-2014 at the USA Hockey U18 National Tournament. Though offered a place on Trimble's roster, Padden chose to return to Montana for his senior year of high school - though a Bozeman Icedogs teammate had committed to join the Wolves that fall. By Christmas, however, Padden realized that if it was a future in the sport he desired, he needed to leave behind the veritable backyard Koi pond of Montana hockey and head for wilder waters. The East Coast's siren song convinced him to break free from his untoward tether.

"There was no challenge for him [in Montana], said Trimble. "When he got here in January of 2015, he was very green. But we knew of, and could see from the way he played, his raw ability."

Padden returned to Laconia with an aim to improving on the Wolves' 2014-15 campaign, their inaugural season, during which the team earned a playoff berth. "That's pretty rare for an expansion team," said Padden. "But we've got a great group of guys here."

The team undertook what Padden called "brutal" preseason training sessions - one week of dry land sprints and weight lifting, two weeks of ice time - though Trimble dispels any notion that the word could ever be synonymous with "tiresome" in his effusive praise of his squad's single-minded approach to self-improvement.

He riffs particularly on Padden's continued evolution and the glue-guy effect he has both on and off the rink. "Ryan brings experience," he said. "He showed up to camp in shape and ready to go. He's a personal kid [who] gets along well with everyone from all walks of life. He's also one of our top six forwards, and will tally up some points for us."

The standard path for a Junior Hockey alumnus runs through a campus. Padden said he "wants to attend college no matter what, with or without a scholarship," but in the interim he focuses solely upon the season at hand, happy to be in a position to hone his stick-and-puck stamina to as fine a point as a year's time will allow. 

"I just followed my dream and ended up here," he said. "I fell in love with hockey as a little kid, and I want to play as long as I can."

Trimble believes his charge to have a bright future in the game. "Colleges will give him a chance," said Trimble. "He brings a lot to the table, and he's still on an upward trajectory - and after his four years, if he keeps playing the way he's been playing, improving at the rate he's been improving, he'll be set up well to keep going."

Padden claims to notice little difference between his life in Valley County and that in New Hampshire, saying "the billet family [he's] staying with treats [him] like one of its own." Whether his Montana lodgings were shared with natives of Philadelphia, Penn. and Moscow, Russia, as is the case in Laconia, one can only venture a (very) educated guess.

"He's got an amazing story," said Trimble. "Graduating class of what - seven? And now he's here. Everyone on the team loves him. We're glad to have him back."