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Bink makes hockey plans

Esky native signs with Janesville

Courtesy photo Escanaba native Nick Bink recently signed a tender contract to play for the Janesville, Wis. Jets for the 2017-18 season.

ESCANABA — Nick Bink must still complete his final season of hockey, but the Escanaba native is continuing to develop his plan for the future.

Bink recently signed a tender contract to play for the Janesville, Wis. Jets for the 2017-18 season. The Jets are members of the North American Hockey League.

Bink is in his third and final season as a student and hockey player at Shattuck, Minn. St. Mary’s Academy. He attended Escanaba High School as a freshman, where he played football and hockey, before transfering.

“This is another burden off my chest,” Bink said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home in Fairbault, Minn. “I don’t have to worry about it anymore. It will be a good place for me.”

NAHL teams receive 10 tenders to claim players for the future, and once a player signs a tender his rights belong to that team and he cannot be recruited or drafted by any other league team.

Shattuck St. Mary’s is an 18U AAA team in the North American Prospects Hockey League.

“Shattuck puts out great hockey players,” Jets’ assistant coach and St. Mary alum Kyle Forte said in a release. “We know he’s been taught the right way.”

A couple of players who were at St. Mary’s when Bink first arrived have since been drafted in the first round by National Hockey League teams and others are members of the U.S. national team.

“I was kind of in disbelief that kids were out there who were that good at such a young age,” Bink said of that wake-up call upon his arrival.

He said he “played with them fine. I fit in. They were at the next level and that gave me confidence knowing I could fit in with those players.”

Attending Shattuck, which is a boarding school for boys and girls, is an excellent experience. In hockey, the team has gruelling practice sessions and plays a solid schedule of games. “Practice is high-paced, there is good competition in practice,” said Bink.

Bink, who was also courted by teams in LaCrosse, Wis. and Bismark, N.D., reports to Janesville for a week-long tryout camp in summer. He is not sure about school while in Janesville, although he may take some college courses.

Janesville is a Tier II Junior program, one step below the United States Hockey League. College teams recruit both levels hard for new talent.

Bink said he selected Janesville because it is closer to home “and they do a good job sending quite a few kids to play Division 1 college, and that is one of my goals.”

Bink has 10 goals and 11 assists in 32 games this season.

“Nick is a big, skilled power forward that can bring a gritty side to any team he’s on,” Forte said in the Jets’ release. “His hockey IQ and his work ethic are what stood out to me the most, and his head coach has talked very highly of his character and how he is in the lockerroom.”

Bink, 6-foot-1, 175 pounds, said his strength is “I can do a little bit of everything, score, set people up, grind in the corners and get the puck out of the zone.” He said stick handling and working with his hands needs to improve.

Leaving home at age 15 was difficult at first but he said “I got used to it pretty quick. The hardest thing was being away from my family. The easiest thing was I made friends fast because of being on the hockey team.”

Being away from home he missed “being around family and friends. I miss playing football a lot, but I thought I would pursue my dream and play hockey,” said Bink, the son of Nick and Michelle Bink. He has a sister, Mari, and brother Nolan.

Bink also has a 3.5 GPA.

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