St. Sebastian's junior Nolan Joyce made sure to do his homework before making his college commitment over the summer.
Joyce, a late 2003 birth-year defenseman from Dedham, Mass., didn’t want to blindly follow in the footsteps of his family’s NCAA hockey paths.
His older brother, ’01 forward Connor, is a freshman at Boston College, while his dad, John, played four seasons for the Chestnut Hill program from 1990-94.
Still, even with a decades-long lineage to the Jerry York-led program in Hockey East, the youngest Joyce wanted to make sure it was the right fit for him before locking it in.
He ended up choosing BC regardless, taking to social media on Aug. 2 to pledge his commitment, but it was important for him to know what else was out there, meet with other coaches and see what other schools had to offer first.
“I had no clue,” Joyce, 17, said of where he thought he would end up. “A lot of people were saying, ‘Oh, he’s just going to BC, he's just going to BC,’ but that's not where I was coming from. I looked at a few other schools and I was open to all of them. I liked all of them, so when I had to narrow down my list it was tough, but in the end, I knew I wanted to go to BC.”
When not playing for head coach Sean McCann at the Needham, Mass., prep school, the 5-foot-11, 161-pound blueliner skates split season with the Boston Junior Eagles 18-U in the fall.
Because he repeated his seventh-grade year at St. Sebastian’s, most of his Junior Eagles teammates had already been through the recruiting process, which gave him an idea of what to expect. “That extra year definitely helped me take a step back and decide where I wanted to go,” Joyce said.
“Nolan is going to be a very impactful player,” said McCann, a former Harvard standout and assistant coach from North York, Ontario, who's entering his 13th season at the helm.
“To me, he’s going to be one of the best, if not the best defenseman in the ISL. I just think his compete level is exceptionally high, his skating ability is very strong and he’s got a tremendous shot. He’s an older player who’s mature, so I think he’s going to take a really big leadership role for us.”
That leadership role Joyce will be taking on is the same his brother held for two years as his St. Sebastian’s teammate. The elder Joyce spent three seasons with the Arrows before opting to play the 2020-21 season with the Connecticut Junior Rangers in the NCDC.
“Two years ago, he was a captain, and every captain in the past few years I've not only looked up to but also learned what it means to be a leader for the younger kids," Joyce said. "When you're young, you don't want to talk that much, you just want to fill your role, but then you realize how much the captains mean and how they just want to support you and take you under their wing.
“I think I’ll do what those captains of the past did for me and take the younger guys under my wing, support them and tell them, ‘Hey, just have fun and enjoy it.’”
The two seasons the brothers spent together in prep make up just a small portion of how they have been — and now will continue to be — involved in each other’s hockey careers.
“He’s always pushing me and wants me to get better every day,” Nolan said of his older brother, Connor Joyce. “He’s always making me do conditioning with him even if I don't want to, push more weight and show up to the gym every day ready to work. It’s always, ‘Come on, Nolan, let’s go,’ and I always listen to him, so it definitely helps.”
BC’s first home game is on Oct. 15 against Northeastern. If not for that night, the younger Joyce is sure to make the trip to Conte Forum on many other occasions to watch his brother and future college in action.
Before he can join the Eagles on the ice, however, Nolan has some time left in prep before likely playing a year of junior and then arriving with the Eagles for the 2023-24 or 2024-25 campaign. His rights are owned by Chicago, the team that drafted him 135th overall in the ninth round of the 2021 USHL Entry Draft.
For now, he’s focused on continuing to get bigger and stronger as he plays split season with the Junior Eagles. Then, when the time comes, it's on to prep, which is on track to return to normalcy in 2021-22 after the partial season in 2020-21.
With a trio of D-1 commits on the roster and more likely to come, the Arrows are shaping up to be one of the top teams in the ISL this year and beyond.
“I'm really excited for the season, playing a full schedule and having actual fans at the games,” Joyce said. “I think we have a really good team. We lost a good amount of seniors and Will Smith (Lexington, Mass.) went to the NTDP, but we’ve got some good older guys coming back and some younger guys who are good, too, so I’m definitely excited.”
With his recent BC commitment in tow, No. 4 will be at the center of it as St. Sebastian’s sets out to win its first league title since 2003.
“He’s a high, high-end kid,” McCann said of Joyce. “Great speed, great skill and a really good compete level. He does absolutely everything for us.
"He’s going to be a threat offensively every single time he's on the ice, so I'm looking forward to it.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the September/October 2021 New England Hockey Journal magazine.
