Editor’s note: The Youngstown SteelHounds were part of the Mahoning Valley sports scene for three seasons (2005-08) as part of the Central Hockey League. This is one in a series of stories about the minor league hockey franchise written by Tribune Chronicle / Vindicator sports reporter Brian Yauger as part of his journalism senior project at Youngstown State University. The stories will run periodically in the Tribune / Vindicator sports pages throughout the summer.

Despite being one of the first players taken by the Youngstown SteelHounds in the 2005 Central Hockey League expansion draft, it wasn’t long before defenseman Matt Nicholson found himself in retirement — much sooner than he expected. Fortunately for Nicholson, he was prepared for life after playing.

His first year of professional hockey was showing promise of things to come. The 23-year old, fresh out of Colgate University, posted 11 points in 31 games with the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs. That wound up being a career high, including his college years.

Going into the 2005-06 season, a new franchise was entering the Central Hockey League, and the Mudbugs opted to allow the expansion SteelHounds to take Nicholson as a part of the expansion draft.

While with the Mudbugs, Nicholson had joked about the travel time playing for Youngstown.

“We saw earlier on in the season that Youngstown was going to have an expansion team and I remember making a tongue-in-cheek comment on a bus trip like, ‘Man, imagine playing in Youngstown just because of the geographical proximity,’ ” he said. “Fast forward a couple months later, and (then Mudbugs coach Scott) Muscutt said, ‘Hey, we’re not gonna protect you for the Expansion Draft.’

“Shortly after, I got a phone call from (SteelHounds coach Jean) Laforest and it’s just like a trade, where for a split second you’re not sure what to feel because your old club essentially says, ‘Hey, we’re gonna move on from you.’ But then you have the excitement that someone else wanted you.”

Nicholson remembers being the first player to step onto the then-Chevrolet Centre ice for the team’s home-opening contest against the Oklahoma City Blazers.

In that opening game, Nicholson had an assist on Jeff Christian’s second goal of a four-goal performance.

Unfortunately, after 20 games with the SteelHounds, Nicholson had to retire from the game of hockey due to concussion issues.

“I stopped about halfway through that first year because I had 13 concussions that I can remember,” Nicholson said. “I always joke that the only three things I have in common with Sidney Crosby are that I’m a male, I played hockey, and we saw the same concussion doctor, and that’s where the comparisons end.

“The doctor told me ‘You’re cleared, you played a couple years of pro hockey, a couple of Division I, you’re 24 years old, you should just shut it down.’ ”

Looking back, while knowing it was for the best to hang up his skates, Nicholson wishes he could have stayed to play in Youngstown.

“I really liked it there,” he said. “I liked the group of guys, I would have loved to come back the next year with (coach Kevin Kaminski) and continued to build something there.”

Even though his playing days in Youngstown were done, Nicholson stuck around the area and continued to be a part of the team. During that time in Youngstown while not playing, Nicholson began to plant the seeds of what he wanted to do after retirement.

“Ideally, what I was trying to do was skip the line and be a member of the coaching staff,” he said. “(Jeff Christian) was the player coach, but I wanted to be on the bench because then I wanted to really get into coaching. I had just turned 24 years old, and it just never came to fruition.”

Along with trying to become a coach during that time, Nicholson was also engaging with the community through his Club 17 program.

“I made a little club called Club 17 and partnered with MaryKaye Carlson that worked at the YMCA,” Nicholson said. “We went to different communities to try to grow hockey right from a youth level.”

It didn’t take long after retirement for Nicholson to find a coaching job. For the 2007-08 season, he found a ground floor job, helping establish a college hockey program at Adrian College. After two years there, he spent six seasons as an assistant coach with Robert Morris.

Nicholson entered the junior coaching ranks, taking charge of the Amarillo Bulls of the NAHL as the head coach, but found his way back to college as the assistant coach of Niagara University’s program.

While Nicholson’s time on the ice was short, all signs are pointing to him having a long future behind the bench. His experience at multiple levels of hockey gave him one key piece of advice.

“Coaching collegiately, I try to tell guys, ‘Youth hockey is different from junior, junior is different from college, and the pros are a whole other animal,” Nicholson said. “You’ve got to give yourself three to five years to really give it a crack.”