Nick Blankenburg (born May 12, 1998) is an American professional

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 ...

defenseman for the

Nashville Predators The Nashville Predators (colloquially referred to as the Preds) are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Predators compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Divisio ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL). He previously played for the

Columbus Blue Jackets The Columbus Blue Jackets (often simply referred to as the Jackets) are a professional ice hockey team based in Columbus, Ohio. The Blue Jackets compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern C ...

. He played

college ice hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America. In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within the go ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

Early life

Blankenburg attended Romeo High School. During his senior year he was team captain and recorded 35 goals and 32 assists in 30 games, and helped lead the Bulldogs to their first state championship in school history in 2016.

Playing career

Junior

After graduating from Romeo in 2016, Blankenburg tried out twice for the

North American Hockey League The North American Hockey League (NAHL) is one of the top junior hockey leagues in the United States and is in its 50th season of operation in 2024–25. It is the only Tier II junior league sanctioned by USA Hockey, and acts as an alternati ...

, but had no success. With a year left of eligibility for AAA hockey, he tried out for and made the Victory Honda 18U team in

Plymouth, Michigan Plymouth is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A western suburb of Detroit, Plymouth is located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, and northeast of Ann Arbor. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 9,370. ...

. During the 2016–17 season, he switched from forward to defense to fill a needed position on the team; a position he's stuck with ever since. He recorded ten goals and 18 assists in 32 games with Victory Honda. From there, he was scouted by the

Okotoks Oilers The Okotoks Oilers are a junior A ice hockey team in the BCHL based in Okotoks, Alberta. The team plays its home games at the Viking Rentals Centre. The team joined the BCHL on February 1, 2024 after defecting from the AJHL along with four oth ...

of the

Alberta Junior Hockey League The Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) is an Alberta-based Junior A ice hockey league that belongs to the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). It was formed as a five-team league in 1964. The 2023–24 season began with 16 teams, however 5 ...

. For the 2017–18 season, Blankenburg played defense for the Okotoks Oilers, and recorded 16 goals and 26 assists in 57 games. While playing for Okotoks, Blankenburg caught the attention of scouts from his home school, University of Michigan, and received an offer to play college hockey.

Collegiate

Blankenburg began his collegiate career as a walk-on for the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

during the 2018–19 season. He scored his first collegiate goal on November 10, 2018, in a game against Notre Dame. He finished his freshman year with two goals and eight assists in 34 games. During the 2019–20 season in his sophomore year, he recorded four goals and 12 assists in 35 games. Following the season he was named Honorable Mention All-Big Ten. On July 10, 2020, Blankenburg was named an alternate captain for the 2020–21 season. During his junior year, he recorded five goals and eight assists in 26 games. He ranked sixth in the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

in defenseman scoring with 13 points, and ranked third in the Big Ten, and tenth nationally, in

plus–minus Plus–minus, ±, +/−, or variants may refer to: * Plus–minus sign (±), a mathematical symbol which can mean either plus (+) or minus (−), or can indicate the uncertainty of a measurement or statistic * Plus–minus (sports), a sport ...

at +19. Following the season he was named Honorable Mention All-Big Ten. On September 16, 2021, he was named team captain for the 2021–22 season. After being a walk-on for his first three years, Blankenburg was also awarded a scholarship for the 2021–22 season. During his senior year, he recorded a career-high 14 goals and 15 assists in 38 games. On November 26, he scored a goal and an assist in a 4–0 win over Niagara. The next day against Niagara he recorded two goals and an assist in a 4–1 win, for his second consecutive multi-point game. He was subsequently named the Big Ten First Star of the Week for the week ending November 30, after recording five points during the weekend series. His 14 goals tied the Michigan program record for goals in a single season by a senior defenseman. He ranked second among all NCAA defensemen in goals and power play goals. Following the season he was named Honorable Mention All-Big Ten, and a finalist for the

Senior CLASS Award The Senior CLASS Award is awarded to the most outstanding senior student-athlete in 10 NCAA Division I sports. An acronym for "Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School," the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete ...

. He also was awarded Michigan's

Big Ten Medal of Honor Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * ''Big'', a 2023 Taiwanese children's film starring Van Fan and Chie Tanaka * '' Big!'', a Discover ...

. He finished his career at Michigan with 25 goals, 44 assists, a +52 with 10 power-play goals and three game-winning goals in 133 games.

Professional

On April 8, 2022, Blankenburg signed a one-year, entry-level contract with the

for the remainder of the

2021–22 NHL season The 2021–22 NHL season was the 105th season of operation (104th season of play) of the National Hockey League (NHL). The league expanded to 32 teams with the addition of the Seattle Kraken. The league had an October-to-April regular season sch ...

. He made his NHL debut for the Blue Jackets on April 13, 2022. On April 24, in his sixth game, Blankenburg's first career NHL goal was the game-winning

power play "Power play" is a sporting term used to describe a period of play where one team has a numerical advantage in players, usually due to a rule violation by the opposing team. Temporary numerical advantage in players during a team sport In several ...

marker in a 5–2 victory against the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. Th ...

. On July 15, 2022, Blankenburg signed a two-year, $1.65 million extension with the Blue Jackets. During the 2023–24 season he recorded one goal in 12 games for the Blue Jackets. He also appeared in 24 games for the Blue Jackets' AHL affiliate, the

Cleveland Monsters The Cleveland Monsters are a professional ice hockey team based in Cleveland. They are the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Monsters play home games at Rocket Mortgage F ...

where he recorded three goals and ten assists. On July 1, 2024, Blankenburg signed a two-year contract with the

. Blankenburg began the 2024–25 season with the Predators' AHL affiliate, the

Milwaukee Admirals The Milwaukee Admirals are a professional ice hockey team based in Milwaukee. They are the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Nashville Predators. They play their homes games at the UW–Milwaukee Panther ...

. On November 27, 2024, he was recalled by the Predators and made his team debut later that night. Prior to being recalled he recorded three goals and five assists in 13 games for the Admirals.

International play

On May 5, 2022, Blankenburg was named to the

United States men's national ice hockey team The United States men's national ice hockey team represents the United States in men's international ice hockey. The team is controlled by USA Hockey, the governing body for organized ice hockey in the United States. The U.S. team is currently ...

to compete at the

2022 IIHF World Championship The 2022 IIHF World Championship was hosted by Finland from 13 to 29 May 2022, as the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) announced on 19 May 2017 in Cologne, Germany. The host cities of the World Championships were Tampere and Helsinki, ...

. He was scoreless in four games.

Personal life

Blankenburg's older brother, Alex, played college ice hockey for

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

from 2015–19.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blankenburg, Nick 1998 births Living people American people of German descent American men's ice hockey defensemen Cleveland Monsters players Columbus Blue Jackets players Ice hockey people from Michigan Michigan Wolverines men's ice hockey players Milwaukee Admirals players Nashville Predators players Okotoks Oilers players Undrafted National Hockey League players 21st-century American sportsmen