Former left-winger Nathan Walker scored a trick hat in his debut season with the Blues, a total from the first 25 games of his career

Photo: Joe Puetz / NHLI via Getty Images

Former Washington Capitals left winger Nathan Walker scored a hat-trick on his 2021-22 regular season debut for St. Louis Blues on Thursday night in the team’s 6-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings at Enterprise Center after being recalled from the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds earlier in the day. The 27-year-old hit his career tally in 25 NHL games entering Thursday in 49:27 of the game.

After receiving a pass from Brayden Schenn from the center of the right circle, Walker poked a slit from high past Red Wings goalkeeper Alex Nedeljkovic. 6:17 in the first half.

10:30 later, Walker received a pass from defender Niko Mikkola, took a shot, hesitated, and tore a line through Nedeljkovic’s glove from the top left to make it 2-0.

Walker cleared the ball from defender Torey Krug’s shot from above, past Nedeljkovic’s block in the gap to extend the Blues’ lead to 4-1 9:27 in the third half.

Walker, the first NHL player born in Australia, signed with the Blues as an unrestricted free agent on 1 July 2019 and has eight points in his NHL career. He’s got six goals and 17 points in 19 games with the Thunderbirds this season.

The Capitals drafted the 89th Walker overall in the 2014 NHL Draft. He scored 96 goals and 181 points in 373 games for AHL’s Hershey Bears.

The only goal Walker scored for the Capitals was on his NHL debut on October 7, 2017.

By Harrison Brown