The Adirondack Thunder are coming off their first season in which they didn’t qualify for the Kelly Cup Playoffs. This of course being the case despite hitting the ice for 63 games last season. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen a few new faces signing the Thunder, and today, we will get to know last week’s signing, forward Nick Rivera.
Who Is Nick Rivera?
Rivera comes in as a 24-year-old, five-foot-ten forward from Pacific Palisades, California. Nick grew up as the youngest of four brothers, and his entire life, has followed in the three’s footsteps. Rivera started playing competitively in 2011-12 when he joined the Los Angeles Kings Jr. 16U team. He spent two years with the AAA hockey club.
In 2016, he represented the United States in the Maccabi Games in Jerusalem Israel. “It was a pretty amazing experience and my two other brothers were on the same team as me and my sister and my family got to come see me play. It was organized very well by Greg Gardner, who coaches Mercyhurst University, but we didn’t win in the end, but we got to do to a bunch of site-seeing,” said Rivera.
This was before heading to play in the NAHL with the Wenatchee Wild. Nick then spent two years in Omaha, including a 26 goal season in his second and final year. This was before going to college at Minnesota St (Mankato).
Getting Ready For Glens Falls Hockey
When asked about what it’s going to be like playing competitively for the first time since March, Rivera said, “Probably just trying to focus getting into right away and getting as many practice reps you need and staying in shape, and at the professional level, you have to hold yourself accountable if you want to be successful at the end of the day.”
Nick is no stranger to playing in small towns and is excited to play in Glens Falls come December. “I’ve heard nothing but great things about Glens Falls.” When asked about the Thunder fanbase and how passionate they are about their hockey team, Nick said, “I think it’s a big part of the recruiting process of me committing and signing there. I enjoy that. I’ve been fortunate enough to play throughout my whole career in some great cities with Wenatchee and Omaha and Mankato, all those great places, and you know, I’m fortunate that all those places have dedicated fans and we had boosters that were more than loving towards us and very helpful, so I mean, I think it’s a big part because you give back to the community and it just makes the place more rowdy and it’s a lot more fun.”