Nathaniel "Nate" Oliver (born April 13, 1980) is an American

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

executive. Of note, he served as the final general manager of the

Buffalo Beauts The Buffalo Beauts were a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). They played in Amherst, New York, a suburb of Buffalo, at the Northtown Center. The Beauts were established in 2015 as one of the four founding f ...

, competing in the

Premier Hockey Federation The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) was a women's professional ice hockey league in the United States and Canada that operated from March 2015 until June 2023. The league was established in 2015 as the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), com ...

(PHF). As a side note, the Beauts final season occurred in the

2022–23 PHF season The 2022–23 PHF season was the eighth and final ice hockey season of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) – known as the National Women's Hockey League during its first six seasons (2015–2021). League business The PHF decided not to hold ...

, also the last for the league. Prior to his role as the Beauts general manager, Oliver served as the Beauts’ Community Relations Manager for one season. Oliver is also an associate director with Campus Living at the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public university, public research university in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. ...

. Before joining the Buffalo Beauts in 2019, Oliver was a sports journalist, having covered the game for ''The Hockey Writers''.

Hockey career

Buffalo Beauts

Oliver was hired as general manager the Buffalo Beauts on May 12, 2020, becoming the fourth GM in franchise history. He replaced Mandy Cronin, who left the position to become GM of the expansion

Toronto Six The Toronto Six were a professional women's ice hockey team in Toronto, Ontario, playing out of Canlan Ice Sports – York. They were one of two Canadian teams in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) along with the Montreal Force, and the first ...

. The first player signed by Oliver was Dominique Kremer. In May 2022, he re-signed Kremer to the first two-year deal in league history. Six days later, on May 9, 2022, he signed

Mikyla Grant-Mentis Mikyla Grant-Mentis (born July 15, 1998) is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward for PWHL Seattle of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). She is the all-time leading scorer of the Merrimack Warriors women's ice hockey team. In ...

, the reigning league MVP, to the largest single-season contract in league history, valued at $80,000 USD. Other players signed by Oliver while serving as Beauts GM include Autumn MacDougall, an alum of the

Alberta Pandas women's ice hockey The Alberta Pandas ice hockey team represents the University of Alberta in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association of U Sports. The team was led by head coach Howie Draper from 1997 (the year the team joined U Sports) until 2023, when D ...

program, also the first player from

U Sports women's ice hockey U Sports women's ice hockey is the highest level of play of women's ice hockey at the university level under the auspices of U Sports, Canada's governing body for university sports. Women's ice hockey has been played in U Sports since the 1997-98 ...

to be drafted into the PHF. In Oliver’s first draft as general manager, in 2021, the players he selected included RMU Colonials alumnae Emilie Harley (2nd overall) and

Anjelica Diffendal Anjelica may refer to: * Anjelica Huston, an American actress * Anjelica Selden, African-American athlete * Anjelica Sanchez, Miss Continental Plus 2004 See also * Anjelika (disambiguation) * Angelica * Angelika (disambiguation) Angelika may ref ...

(7th overall). With three consecutive picks at 13, 14 and 15, Oliver took Kennedy Ganser,

Anna Zíková Anna Zíková (born 13 May 1998) is a Czech ice hockey player. Her college ice hockey career was played with the Maine Black Bears women's ice hockey program in the Hockey East (HEA) NCAA Division I Women's Hockey conferences and teams, conferenc ...

and Missy Segall. Holy Cross forward Allison Attea went 19th overall, while Oliver’s last pick made draft history. Selecting Castleton University’s Casey Traill, the first player in university history to be drafted into professional hockey, she was the first-ever British player in the draft. Additionally, Oliver selected Swedish goaltender Lovisa Berndtsson with the first ever selection in the PHF's International Draft.

Post-hockey career

Having made a transition to acting, Oliver took on a role as an associate producer in 2024 for the film CATnip, a horror/comedy Christmas movie about residents of an apartment building trapped with feral cats. Scheduled for release in 2025, the cast includes the likes of Chevy Chase, Bruce Dern and Joey Lauren Adams. Oliver is also poised to appear in the film as a paramedic.

Personal

Oliver considers his closest friend in hockey to be Finnish Olympian and HPK team manager Maija Hassinen-Sullanmaa and he credits her as one of the main influences in his becoming a professional women's hockey GM.

Other

Nathaniel Oliver's IMDB Page

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oliver, Nate 1980 births Living people American ice hockey administrators Buffalo Beauts Ice hockey executives Ice hockey people from New York (state) Ice hockey people from Buffalo, New York Sportswriters from New York (state) University at Buffalo people