Nick Halloran calls journey to AHL “super surreal”

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Nick Halloran's journey to the AHL began in Draper, Utah. Once he got to Colorado College, he was a consistent force to be reckoned with. In his final season with the Tigers, he was second on the team with 30 points and led CC in assists with 18. Now, he joins former teammate mason bergh with the Ontario Reign. Halloran is doing something many seek to do, but few ever achieve.

"It's really just getting started," Halloran said in a Zoom call with the media on Friday. "I'm not easing up or slowing down at all. Yeah it's awesome. It's really beyond words. I was actually talking to my family the other day about it, and it's kind of funny because putting on hockey pads growing up, it never really crossed my mind that I would be able to play professional hockey. Here I am now. It's super surreal and it's a dream come true."

Halloran got guidance from Bergh over the last year on what the pro game is like. As fate would have it, Halloran ends up signing with the same team.

"Throughout the year before I even signed, I would ask him how his pro hockey, what's life like? (I would) kind of get the ins and outs. It's kind of funny now that I signed with the same team. Maybe will be teammates next year."

Halloran, who watched as sports across the country were cancelled by Covid-19, including the NCHC tournament, joins a pro team at a time when no one knows when sports will resume.

"It's been the weirdest past couple of months of my life," Halloran said. "Originally the virus was something over in Europe and Asia that we didn't really know much about. Now it's affecting everyone's personal lives. If you came really real, really fast. Absolutely, it's been an emotional roller coaster."

Eventually sports will resume, and Halloran will begin his pro career.

Asked what his first purchase would be with his first pro check, Halloran said he would open a savings acount.