Don't label Johnny Walker: Arizona State standout's unique style grows college hockey in the desert

Jacob Janower

•
Don't label Johnny Walker: Arizona State standout's unique style grows college hockey in the desert image

Shortly after scoring the game-winning goal to defeat then-No. 6 Penn State, Johnny Walker dropped down to a sitting position onto the ice, a hockey pose uncharacteristic even for goal celebrations. Using his stick as a paddle, he pretended to row a boat.

Not only did Walker give his Arizona State Sun Devils an upset victory over the Nittany Lions, but he offered up his submission for best goal celebration of the year.

TOP 25 UNDER 25: Ranking the NHL's best young stars

The celebration was more than just Walker’s way of enjoying his winning goal. It was the embodiment of him as a player.

The sophomore forward is more than just a piece of the winning puzzle for ASU hockey — which has been ranked as high as No. 16, according to USCHO.com. Walker, a Phoenix native, is becoming the face of a southwestern hockey program that some don’t even know exists. Arizona State is the only Pac-12 school with a Division I team, a geographic polar compared to college hockey hotbeds like Massachusetts and Minnesota, but Walker's on-ice flair is helping to elevate the program on the national stage.

He is popular among Arizona State's fans and his teammates, known as someone who likes to have fun on the ice and rile up opponents before leaving them in the dust as he scores. That formula has proven especially successful this season for Walker, who holds a share of the NCAA goals lead and has been consistently among the nation's top scorers.

johnny-walker-2-120618-ftr.jpg
(Photo courtesy of Arizona State athletics)

Walker's fun-loving persona is something he's decided to embrace. He enjoys achieving his goals, no pun intended, so why not let that show?

“I think that sometimes a lot of people can make (hockey) more serious than it should be,” Walker told Sporting News. “At the end of the day, you play the game to have fun and that’s why you started. Some people get caught up in playing to move to the next level. My goal was to play college hockey when I was younger. I finally made it and it’s time to have some fun with it. Every day I get to play is a little gravy on top, a little extra.”

Walker’s enthusiasm for the game may not make him the most well-liked by the opposition, especially as he's accumulated 65 penalty minutes in two seasons. It makes sense, then, that the NHL player who Walker models his game after is Brad Marchand, who has built a reputation as a love-him-or-hate-him talent for the Bruins.

MORE: SN's top 50 NHL prospects | 2018-19 farm system rankings

“He is kind of an undersized guy that competes really hard and doesn’t back down to anyone and still finds a way to contribute offensively too,” Walker said about Marchand. “He is exactly what I try to be.”

Tempe, Ariz., the home to Arizona State University roughly 10 miles outside Phoenix, goes against everything you think about hockey.

Oceanside Ice Arena, the Sun Devils’ home arena, is ill-fitted considering there is no ocean in the state, let alone beside the venue (the name was actually given so as to fit with the West Coast theme of the businesses around the arena).

The entire premise of the sport revolves around ice, yet Phoenix is the warmest major U.S. city on average and sees snow once in a blue moon.

So it might come as a surprise that the Sun Devils not only have an NCAA hockey team, but a very good one at that, with wins over traditional powers like Penn State, Michigan State and Harvard this season playing as an independent. 

ASU has a recruiting weapon at its disposal that is seldom found at other schools with Division I team: the very sunny, warm-weather climate that makes it an outlier in college hockey. Walker recognizes the luxury this provides and attributes it to why playing hockey in his home state is appealing. It especially gives a new perspective for Canadian kids who experienced plenty of snow growing up.

johnny-walker-3-120618-ftr.jpg(Photo courtesy of Arizona State athletics)

“You are not going to go anywhere else in the country, go to the rink in flip flops and then compete on Friday and Saturday night with top ten teams in the country,” Walker said.

In the past, desert dwellers only had the Arizona Coyotes of the NHL — who play in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale — as a way of getting their hockey fix.

The emergence of the Sun Devils in the NCAA landscape has given fans of the sport an alternative to the pros.

When Walker was growing up in Arizona, college hockey was foreign to the area.

MORE: The evolution of Auston Matthews

“The only college hockey game I ever saw was when I went and played in a tournament in North Dakota, it was on TV,” Walker said. “Just for college hockey to be in the Valley and for kids to see more like a culture step than the Coyotes.”

Perhaps his status as a homegrown star is why Walker has made an effort to give back to the Arizona hockey community and is revered when he shows up to his brother’s youth hockey games.

“I know (Walker) has been doing a lot of community service with the local youth teams and he has got a little brother that plays on the junior Coyotes,” teammate Jacob Wilson said. “He is usually going out Sundays to watch his brother play, so I think that’s pretty cool of him to show his face around there. The kids know who he is.”

Arizona’s stock has been rising in the sport, and Walker seems to be the next big face in the state’s hockey scene, following the lead of Scottsdale native and two-time NHL All-Star Auston Matthews, the first selection in the 2016 draft. Walker and Matthews played on summer West Coast selects and other summer league teams together, offering a glimpse at hockey's future in the state of Arizona from a young age.

Part of the reason why ASU has had a successful season is its clubhouse culture, which Walker has actively contributed to. He keeps things loose and fun, but knows how to step up in a leadership role.

“He’s not afraid to really call guys out and tell them we need more from them,” Wilson said. “He definitely helps us in the locker room.”

If anyone on the Sun Devils knows Walker as a person, it’s Wilson. The two roomed together as freshmen and chose to live together again.

“He works hard on the ice and I enjoy having him as a roommate,” Wilson said. “He’s always fun and he’s always got something to say so it’s never a dull moment with Johnny Walker, that’s for sure.”

Walker’s post-college plans are centered around playing in the NHL, following in the footsteps of Matthews and a select few other Phoenix residents in the professional ranks. However, just like his on-ice skillset, he’s versatile and wants to put the business law degree he plans to obtain from ASU to good use. Regardless of what he opts to do, hockey seems to be a big part of the future.

“At some point I am going to have to get a real job, whether it is right out of college or if I’m lucky enough to play professional hockey for a little bit,” Walker said. “I think I would want to take it and be something on the sports agency side, whether it’s an agent or something related to hockey and stay in the sport as long as I can.”

Jacob Janower