ProStockHockey.com proudly presents Journeymen, our ongoing blog series — a raw, unfiltered look into the lives of elite players at various stages of their individual hockey journey, told entirely in their own words. This series isn’t about stats or headlines — it’s about the miles, the grind, and the road that shaped them. Each story dives deep into the successes and failures, the setbacks and celebrations, and those moments when walking away might have been easier — but they didn’t. Through honesty and reflection, these players share what kept them moving forward and what they want young, aspiring players to know from their own experiences as they chase their own hockey dreams.
My name is Jack Phelan, and I’m from Chicago, Illinois. I’m currently a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin, where I play Division I hockey and major in Finance. I started skating when I was five, and the next year I began playing travel hockey. Even though I have two brothers who also play, Danny (Wentworth D3) and Michael (Miami Ohio D1), no one in my family grew up playing played hockey.
My introduction to the sport really took off because of a family friend, Paul Phillips, who had a great hockey career. At the time, he was playing for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in the USHL, and we went to watch him play when they came to town to face the Chicago Steel. I only remember bits and pieces of the game, but my brothers and I were fascinated. The next day, my dad took us to buy street hockey sticks, and that kicked off a love for the game that has been with me ever since.
Youth Hockey: Where It Started
My first three years of travel hockey were with the Chicago Hawks in Darien, Illinois. My first year, I played on the Mite B4 team, and then I jumped up to Mite AA1 for the next two seasons. Even though most kids around that age are still figuring out their position, I was a natural defenseman and only wanted to play defense because my role model at the time, Paul Phillips, was a defenseman.
After another year at the Hawks, I moved on and made the jump to AAA hockey with the Chicago Mission. I ended up playing eight seasons there, coming in as a kid and leaving as a man. I played for a lot of great coaches and met tons of great people and teammates along the way.
Adversity From Setbacks
Growing up and playing at a prestigious program like the Mission, U14 through U16 was when players really started getting recruited, not only by colleges, but by junior teams and the National Development Program, too. Kids were getting advisors and getting all these looks, but nothing ever seemed to come my way.
I was a late bloomer, so I was on the smaller side back then, crazy enough that I am 6’3″ now. I was always smart and understood the game well, but I remember getting pushed around a little bit during my U14 year.
I will never forget breaking down in front of my parents one night after practice. I was frustrated and honestly just felt a little behind physically with the kids my age. Looking back, that was a moment that really drove me because I knew how badly I wanted it, and it pushed me to start becoming the best version of myself. Thanks to my parents and the countless amounts of support, time, and sacrifice they have given me my whole life, I learned that I was going to have to do more. I had to start eating more, shooting pucks, and working out even harder if I wanted to catch up and give myself a real shot.
I started to grow a little and had a solid U15 season. I talked to a few USHL teams, and I will always remember them telling me they were going to take me in the draft the next day. I watched the whole draft and never saw my name get called.
I had another good summer and then had a great U16 year despite all the COVID regulations. I was certain I would at least get picked in the USHL Phase 2 Draft after speaking to more teams. The same thing happened again. I talked to teams that claimed they were taking me, and I came up short again.
That left me worried, because you always hear about the best players leaving after U15 or U16 to pursue junior hockey in the USHL or CHL. At the time, it felt like everyone else was moving forward and I was still waiting.
Looking back, that was one of the biggest lessons of my career. Young players worry way too much about when things are supposed to happen. I definitely had moments where I compared myself to other guys, but my path was never supposed to look like theirs.
I ended up making Sioux City’s 40-man camp and finally talked to my first college. I had a good summer, and even though I was a little worried about playing U18, it ended up being one of the best things that ever happened to me.
U18: The Jumpstart I Needed
It was my senior year of high school, and I was fortunate that a ton of my best friends were on that team too. More than anything, I still needed time to fill into my body and develop my game before going on to junior hockey. Something I always heard was that when you make the jump to another level, you want to be able to go in and make an impact right away. That stuck with me.
I ended up having an awesome season and earned a tender with the North Iowa Bulls in the NAHL, who were also going to let me play at the end of their season. With North Iowa, I was able to jump in right away and play solid minutes, which got me on the radar of a lot more colleges and USHL teams. It was refreshing to know that my hard work had started to pay off with schools reaching out and teams finally noticing me. I cannot thank Todd Sanden (my coach there) enough for bringing me in after the season and letting me play 12 NAHL games. That stretch was almost like a jump start for my career.
After years of coming up short in the USHL Draft, I finally got picked in the seventh round by the Sioux Falls Stampede.
USHL: Growing Up and Earning My Spot
The USHL was great. I had always been around older guys who played there, and I thought it was the coolest league to play in.
I came into training camp with a stool in the corner and the number 12, with my three choices for numbers were 8, 7, and 4. We had 11 defensemen there and only kept 8, so at the start I was definitely a little nervous. I knew nothing was going to be handed to me.
I ended up having a great training camp and preseason, earning a spot on the opening night roster and a commitment to Minnesota State, which I later flipped to Wisconsin. That year was a journey, starting at the bottom of the pack and earning my way into the top four of the defensive core.
Junior hockey can be tough at times, but I enjoyed it a ton. Junior hockey is a great time not only to work on your game but grow into an adult while away from home. I came back for a second year and was named captain before coming to Wisconsin.
That part of my career taught me a lot too. A lot of guys worry too much about getting to the next level as fast as possible, but once you get there, you have to be ready to earn your spot. For me, staying patient helped a lot. Playing U18 when I did, going to North Iowa when I did, going into Sioux Falls, and then going to Wisconsin when I was ready made a huge difference.
NHL Draft: The Breakthrough Moment
Throughout my first season in Sioux Falls, I started to get questionnaires from NHL teams, which was super surreal. In under a year, I had made the USHL, earned a college commitment, and now I was starting to talk to National Hockey League teams. It was a whirlwind, but I would not have changed it for the world. Some things were finally starting to click, and it was refreshing after years of hard work and not much coming from it.
I interviewed face to face with teams after games and had a lot of phone calls as the season started to wind down. I thought I had a good chance, but I did not want to get my hopes up because a draft can go a number of ways, like it did the previous years with the USHL. My trainer, Barry Brennan, had very good hopes for me at least getting a development camp invite if the draft did not go as planned. I trusted him, but I could barely sleep the night before the draft.
(Picture on the right is my first time playing against my brother Michael)
I woke up, got a workout in, and did not want to watch the draft. I went to grab lunch after my workout and was fighting the urge to check my phone, but I’m kind of superstitious, so I was not going to let that urge win. As I was putting Maps in to get home from lunch, my old teammate Maxim Strbak, who got picked in the second round by Buffalo, called me out of nowhere. Right away I thought, this could be it. He said, congrats man. I said, what? He goes, you just got picked. One of the best feelings ever rushed through my body. I asked by who and in what round which made him think I was crazy. I ended up getting taken by the Detroit Red Wings with the ninth pick in the fifth round, 137th overall.
That was one of the highest highs of my career, but what made it so special was everything that came before it. It was all the years of being overlooked, all the times I thought something was finally going to happen and it did not, and all the work that nobody really sees. Although this is a great accomplishment there is so much more work I need to put into my game to play at the pro level.
What Actually Moves the Needle
Some of the key things that I believe have helped me so far in my career are training, diet, and consistency. As a tall guy at 6’3″, 195 pounds, and still growing into my body, training not only for strength, but speed and mobility too, is crucial. I have to thank Barry Brennan, who trains me back home in Chicago, for helping me get bigger, stronger, and faster every summer. I work out five days a week, with Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as lift days, and Tuesday and Thursday as conditioning, either on the bike or doing 300-yard shuttles. I have made a ton of growth over the last four years with him and actually tested number one among defensemen at development camp this past summer, which was a cool moment for me.
Because I have been working on putting on weight every summer, eating is just as important, if not more important, for a guy like me who struggles to put on weight. Eating is like a job for me. In the summer, I eat a minimum of four heavy meals a day, and I have a protein shake every night before bed.
Consistency has been another major factor in my game that I have been working on for a long time. I play a physical game, and making sure I have that edge before every game is one of the biggest parts of my preparation.
I like switching my mind after pregame warmups to block out the noise and focus on a few things I want to make sure I take care of while playing the game. Obviously, you want to play your perfect A+ game every night, but that is just not possible. Building a rock-solid B game that you can always fall back on is what some of the best in the world do, and that is something I really believe in.
If there is one thing I would tell younger players, it isn’t good to worry way too much about who is getting drafted, who is getting offers, who has an advisor, who is leaving first, and who is getting attention. I get it because I worried about some of that too. But what actually moved the needle for me was getting stronger, staying patient, staying consistent, and being ready when the opportunity finally came. My path has been nowhere near perfect and will continue to have bumps in the road, but you always have to trust the process.
The Future: What Comes Next, and What It Takes
Obviously, the NHL is such a competitive league, and with my goal of one day playing in it, there is still a lot of work to be done. Every year there are tons of great players trying to earn their spot, so one of the biggest ways I differentiate myself is by sticking to my game and knowing exactly what kind of player I am. I have never been known for huge point production, but I take a lot of pride in playing a strong two-way defensive game. I take pride in my skating, my stick, and my defensive instincts, and I try to be sharp on my first passes every night while beating my check up the ice after breaking the puck out.
I feel like this year I made a big step in closing quickly in the neutral zone and defensive zone by using my feet to take away time and space, then finishing plays with my stick and body. The biggest way I separate myself is by being as reliable as I can be, hard to play against, and someone coaches can trust late in games. I keep trying to chip away at becoming more steady, physical, and consistent every night. The biggest thing I work on every summer is my skating, because even though it is already a strength of mine, I know that to play at the highest level you need to be a world class skater. I am also big on watching a ton of NHL hockey to pick up small details that can help my game.
To give myself the best chance to play in this league, summer training is a huge part of it. This summer, my main goals are to get quicker, more explosive, and to keep adding strength. With three lifts a week, two conditioning days, and two skates a week, the summer can get hectic, but it is one of the most important times of the year for a hockey player. When I am home I workout with Barry Brennan. When I am at Wisconsin, we have a great strength coach, Tommy Inkrott, who does an unbelievable job at getting us bigger, stronger, and faster every summer. A lot of the work that shows up during the season gets built in the offseason.
In the gym, I do a lot of Olympic lifts along with eccentric and concentric work, squats, and agility training to put myself in the best shape possible. At my size, being strong is really important too. I play at 195 pounds right now, and my goal for next season is to play around 205 pounds. For a skinny kid, eating is honestly one of the hardest parts of my summer routine. Pushing myself to the limit on the ice and in the gym has never been a problem, but I have never been a great eater.
I make it a priority to eat four big meals a day. Some of my go to meals are eggs and rice, ground beef and rice, chicken and rice, steak and rice, and I try to add avocado whenever I can. I also take creatine to help with recovery and performance, and I finish every day with a peanut butter and banana protein shake right before bed. One of the biggest things I have learned is that I almost have to cut out snacking in the summer, so I do not ruin my appetite for the meals that matter most.
When I condition, I wear a heart rate monitor to manage both my aerobic and anaerobic work, making sure I am not just training my body and lungs, but my heart as well. On the ice, I skate with a few pros in the summer, and we work a lot on footwork, walking the blue line, deception on breakouts, two on ones, and picking up rims and pucks off the wall. I also try to limit myself to two skates a week, so my skating muscles stay as fresh as possible. For me, the gym and my diet are the biggest pieces of my summer because they give me the best chance to build myself into the player I want to be.
At the end of the day, everything comes back to preparation. The work you put in during the offseason shows up when it matters most.
