Take a glance at the hockey resume of St. Thomas junior captain Lucas Wahlin and it’s easy to envision that tucked somewhere into a storage space at the family home in Woodbury is an old-fashioned steamer trunk plastered with stickers marking his travels:

St. Thomas junior forward Lucas Wahlin. (University of St. Thomas)

Neepawa, Manitoba

Mason City, Iowa

Jamestown, New York

Soldotna, Alaska

Breezy Point, Minnesota

Lincoln, Nebraska

After all of those hours spent schlepping a few taped-together sticks and a hockey bag on and off coach busses, and into and out of stale visitors locker rooms across virtually every time zone in North America, Wahlin finds himself back home, studying business and playing a leadership role for a St. Thomas team locked in a battle for the final home ice slot when the CCHA playoffs begin in a few weeks.

While Tommies coach Rico Blasi puts the actual team transportation in the hands of trained professionals, in Wahlin he sees the consummate leader for an up-and-coming program.

“In terms of how we’re building our culture and our identity, he’s one of those guys that drives the bus,” Blasi said the Tommies’ practice Monday at Saint Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights.

East Side roots

The youngest of four children, Lucas was raised in Woodbury and played youth hockey there. But his roots are firmly rooted within sight of the State Capitol dome.

Lucas’ father Dewey scored an eye-popping 55 goals in 29 games for St. Paul Johnson’s 1984 state tournament team, then crossed the continent himself to play college hockey, first at Maine and then at now-defunct U.S. International University in San Diego.

While Dewey and Carrie’s three older kids attended Woodbury High School, the parents saw enough hockey promise in Lucas to send him to Hill-Murray, where he was a member of the Pioneers’ 2018 state tournament team as a junior.

“Because my dad’s a Johnson guy, and they were rivals with Hill-Murray, all of his Johnson buddies give him crap, and say, ‘You sent your kid to Hill-Murray? Are you kidding me?’ ” Wahlin said.

Going all the way back to when the Governors were winning state titles with a kid named Herb Brooks on the team, Johnson has been renowned for a hard-working, physical brand of hockey. Even though he came up through the suburbs, St. Thomas teammates see some Dewey Wahlin in Lucas’ game.

“When he’s going, it’s because he’s working hard,” said Wahlin’s linemate Matthew Gleason, a St. Paul kid who prepped at Cretin-Derham Hall and is in his second year with the Tommies after transferring from Colorado College. “Lucas is a very skilled player, but that stems from him flying around, playing hard, bumping into guys and playing with his heart on his sleeve.”

Long journey home

Dealing with a shoulder injury when he left high school, Wahlin’s hockey options were limited. He first made the nearly nine-hour drive to Neepawa, Manitoba, to play for a junior team there, but knew before appearing in a game that it wasn’t the right fit.

His next stop was North Iowa, where Wahlin averaged nearly two points a game in the NA3HL, a league mostly populated by average players who are 19 or 20 and determined to give it one more season before letting the dream die.

By the end of that first junior season, Wahlin had moved up to the NAHL, playing five games for the Jamestown Rebels in western New York, then crossing the continent to skate in three more for the Kenai River Brown Bears, who play three hours outside of Anchorage. Wahlin spent the entire 2020-21 season with Kenai River — a nomadic affair that had the team based in Breezy Point due to Alaska’s strict pandemic travel prohibitions. The Brown Bears played “home” games in seven different rinks that year, and Wahlin had 19 goals in 44 games.

His game took another step forward the following season, as Lincoln in the USHL — the nation’s top junior league — offered Wahlin a sweater and a locker stall and he proceeded to light up the scoreboard, averaging better than two points a game and attracting a scholarship offer from Blasi.

“That last year in Lincoln, he was a force. The way he played the game every night and every shift was what we wanted, and what we wanted to build a program around,” Blasi said.

Learning to lead

The captain’s ‘C’ was sewn on to Wahlin’s purple Tommies sweater after his first season of college hockey, and he admits that taking on a team leadership role as a sophomore was a challenge. Last season’s Tommies were in the thick of the fight for the CCHA title until injuries prompted a late-season fade that saw them bow out in the first round of the conference playoffs.

Wahlin, who dealt with injuries himself, spent the season growing into the captaincy and learning how to deal with two dozen different personalities who all seem to respond to different types of motivation.

“I’ve learned a lot. … Not everyone takes criticism the same way, obviously, and I’ve learned that,” he said. “Some players are OK with getting yelled at, and some players aren’t OK with that. So, you’ve got to find a happy medium. You build a lot more personal relationships with players.”

On the ice, Wahlin’s versatility is on display, with Blasi using him in all situations. His game thrives when he can be mobile in the offensive zone.

“Sometimes on the power play he just naturally moves around a little bit, which is kind of his game,” Blasi said. “We kind of let him freelance a little bit, and when he’s doing that and moving his feet, he’s really effective. So we don’t want to inhibit him from doing that.”

After 30 games this season, Wahlin is second on the Tommies’ stat sheet in goals (12) assists (16) and points (28).

His parents have always been good about traveling to see him play, from Iowa to Alaska, and rarely miss a game with him being back in the Twin Cities. Wahlin joked that Gleason, because he’s actually from St. Paul, is the local guide for the Tommies who have come from Sweden, Canada, Michigan, Ohio and elsewhere to play in the State of Hockey.

But those who know the Tommies captain see a player who traveled a long way to to get to this point, and is enjoying the familiar surroundings.

“He’s been through a lot, and he’s matured and grown through all of those experiences, which make him who he is,” Blasi said. “If you met Lucas and didn’t know his background, you’d think this guy can’t be true. But once you know his history and learn what he’s been through, you get it.”

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