Blue Jackets Pipeline Podcast: Peter Thome

For most players who make it to the highest levels of hockey, the road is pretty similar.

Given just how difficult it is to play a high-level sport on ice skates, most players who make it to college or juniors let alone the AHL or NHL are on skates from a young age, building up the reps and skills that make them stand out from the pack the older they get.

Then there's Peter Thome.

Despite hailing from Minneapolis in the state of hockey, Thome didn't start playing organized hockey until he was 12 years old. Given how little time he'd spent on skates, he decided to try out at goalie, a place he could best hide his lackluster skills with the blades compared to his contemporaries.

CBJ Radio · The Pipeline Podcast Ep 6 - Peter Thome

"No one in my family played hockey or was even familiar with it," he told Dylan Tyrer on this week's episode of the Pipeline Podcast, a weekly interview series with top CBJ prospects presented by your central Ohio Toyota dealers. "I had a cousin who played in high school and that was the only connection I had in the hockey world.

"But I loved it. I'd watch it every time it was on TV. I'd skate outside and all that. I couldn't really skate very well. I played a bunch of other sports, but I always wanted to play hockey."

Finally, Thome was able to convince his mother, Anne, that he should be able to take to the ice. It turned out to be the right decision.

An excellent athlete with great size at 6-foot-4, Thome quickly became good enough for the sport to take him places. He played in the top two junior leagues in the United States, the North American Hockey League and then the top-level United States Hockey League, before heading to college hockey power North Dakota to continue his career.

Even making it that far was a surprise, but it became real to Thome at the age of 18 when he took part in the NAHL's league showcase event for next-level scouts.

"I had a really good showing, and then all of a sudden like 20 schools are talking to me," he told Tyrer. "It's like North Dakota, Penn State, Cornell, all these really good schools, and I'm like, 'Really? You guys want me? Have you not seen some of the guys out there?' It didn't feel real at the time."

He also was chosen by the Blue Jackets in the sixth round of the 2016 draft, and the team retains his rights. At age 22, he hasn't always had an easy road, but his natural tools make him an intriguing part of the CBJ goaltending pipeline after a year in which he was simply dominant with the Fighting Hawks, posting a 1.37 goals-against average and .935 save percentage after taking over the net in the second half of the season.

Thome talks about his unconventional journey to becoming an NHL prospect, his success with North Dakota a year ago and his approach to working his way up the ranks in this week's podcast, part of a series of conversations with the Jackets' top youngsters.

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