Casey Nelson (born July 18, 1992) is an American former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

defenseman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

, who played in parts of four seasons with the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, along w ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL).

Playing career

High school

Nelson played in the

Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) is the regulatory body for all high school sports in Wisconsin. Its history dates to 1895, making it the earliest continually existing high school athletic organization in the country. I ...

for the Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln High School Red Raiders at the SWCRC (South Wood County Recreation Center) in

Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin Wisconsin Rapids is a city in and the county seat of Wood County, Wisconsin. The population was 18,877 at the 2020 census. The city also forms one of the core areas of the United States Census Bureau's Marshfield-Wisconsin Rapids Micropolit ...

US.

Amateur

Nelson played in the

North American Hockey League The North American Hockey League (NAHL) is one of the top junior hockey leagues in the United States and is in its 48th season of operation in 2022–23. It is the only Tier II junior league sanctioned by USA Hockey, and acts as an alternati ...

with the

Alaska Avalanche The Johnstown Tomahawks are a Tier II junior ice hockey team in the North American Hockey League's East Division. The team plays its home games at the 1st Summit Bank Arena at Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It is the o ...

and

Johnstown Tomahawks The Johnstown Tomahawks are a Tier II junior ice hockey team in the North American Hockey League's East Division. The team plays its home games at the 1st Summit Bank Arena at Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It is the o ...

. He was named the NAHL Defenseman of the Month for November 2012, and he played in the 2013 NAHL Top Prospects Tournament. Nelson joined the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Minnesota State Mavericks The Minnesota State Mavericks are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Minnesota State University, Mankato. The school's athletic program includes 21 varsity sports teams. More than 600 students participate each year in athletics ...

in 2013 and played three seasons at the school. He was named to the All-

WCHA The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

Second Team in the 2014–15 season. In the 2015–16 season, he was named the conference's Defensive Player of the Year while being named to the All-WCHA First Team. Nelson played alongside his brother, Josh, for the 2013–14 season.

Professional

Nelson was invited to participate in a prospect camp for the

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Wells ...

in the summer of 2015. Nelson was signed to an entry-level professional contract by the NHL's

on March 22, 2016. He made his NHL debut with the team on March 26, tallying his first NHL point on an assist in the first period of a game against the

Winnipeg Jets The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment, pl ...

. On June 29, 2016, Nelson signed a two-year contract extension with the Sabres. He recorded his first NHL goal on February 11, 2018, in a 5–4 loss to the

Colorado Avalanche The Colorado Avalanche (colloquially known as the Avs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The Avalanche play thei ...

. On May 2, 2018, Nelson re-signed with the Sabres. As a free agent, Nelson initially returned for a sixth season within the Sabres organization by agreeing to a one-year, two-way contract extension on October 22, 2020. However, Nelson later opted out of participating of the delayed

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. On January 15, 2021, Nelson announced through Instagram that he was retiring from hockey after five professional seasons.

Personal

A native of

, Nelson was a member of a state tournament attending hockey team at Lincoln High School. His older brother Josh currently coaches the

Muskegon Lumberjacks The Muskegon Lumberjacks are a Tier I junior ice hockey team in the Eastern Conference of the United States Hockey League. They play in Muskegon, Michigan, at Mercy Health Arena. The Lumberjacks replaced the International Hockey League franchi ...

in the USHL.

Career statistics

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Casey 1992 births Living people American men's ice hockey defensemen Buffalo Sabres players Ice hockey players from Minnesota Ice hockey players from Wisconsin Minnesota State Mavericks men's ice hockey players People from Stillwater, Minnesota People from Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin Rochester Americans players Undrafted National Hockey League players Minnesota State University, Mankato alumni