Blachman back with Heartlanders, with eastern Iowa his home for 2024-25

Coralville, Iowa – On a rainy bus ride to Wichita, Kansas last season, a text appeared on Heartlanders Head Coach Derek Damon’s phone, and it was from Nico Blachman. 

It was a fairly simple message; Blachman had just been released from the Adirondack Thunder, and wanted to see if the Heartlanders would be a fit for the end of the season.

“Iowa needed toughness and I needed a home and a job,” he said. “I figured it wouldn’t hurt to shoot him a text.”

After a few minutes of discussion with the other coaches on the bus, Damon called Blachman. The two had chatted before a couple times, first in Blachman’s native Florida when the two were on the ice together just after Damon finished his playing career. With the Heartlanders on the road already, the two agreed to let it sit a few days before Blachman officially signed. 

A couple days after his arrival in his first game on Mar. 13, Blachman decisively won a fight against Wheeling’s Matthew Quercia. Though it was a quieter Wednesday at Xtream Arena, the Heartlanders played with spirit behind Blachman’s spark and won 3-2 in overtime. 

See Nico play 5 times at Xtream Arena this season with the team's new 5-Star Ticket Package

“It was the perfect fit,” Blachman said. “It was unbelievable and I’ve loved it since Day 1. The town is so underrated, but the main thing for me is the job and the boss. Everything Derek told me over the phone of how it would be was true. For someone to tell you all these things over the phone and you get there and they were telling the truth. It’s a quality I respect, leading with honesty and I love playing for him because of that.” 

Blachman talked a lot with us about honesty, and it’s clearly something he has sought in each of his eight ECHL stops. This will be the first time in his four-year career that he is starting the season with the same team that he ended the previous year with, and part of the reason is Damon’s leadership style and sincerity.

“It’s a lot harder than you think when you’re managing so many people,” Blachman summarized when chatting about a coach’s role in the ECHL “It could be easy to tell people what they want to hear no matter what job you have.”

Throughout the end of the season, Damon and Blachman communicated often about the team’s game-by-game needs. It can be a easy for a tougher player’s role to be overshadowed in an increasingly hyper-skilled league, but it’s clear Blachman recognizes his power to defend his teammates and make a physical impact. There’s a reason he has played more than 100 games in the ECHL, and eastern Iowa has quickly become one of his favorite spots.

“It’s everything there is to do,” he said. “You walk 20 seconds and you have all the restaurants and the shops. Almost every day I was there it was beautiful weather. The rink is attached to the Field House and the hotels there. You can be at the rink and the River Landing all day if you want, but you live so close to the rink. All the good breakfast spots and lunch spots all in walking distance. It’s one of my favorite places I’ve played at. And it’s a steep competition because I’ve played almost every building in the league and in the South Division during the nice winter there. 

Players like Blachman draw attention, and he was candid about his role in bringing more eyes to the Heartlanders. The team had its best attended season ever in 2023-24, culminating with the first sellout in team history on April 13, a 7-4 romp over first-place Kansas City on Fan Appreciation Night. Nearly 5,000 fans jammed into Xtream Arena and watched Blachman and the Heartlanders play inspired hockey in front of their home fans and terrorize the Mavericks. It was the closest thing the arena experienced to the first game in team history, coincidentally also a 7-4 slugfest win over KC. 

The Heartlanders have already started their 2024-25 rollout, including the creation of a 5-Star Ticket Package that will recreate the high-energy, 5-star fan experience at 5 specific games during the 2024-25 season. Join the fun of those 5 experiences by purchasing a 5-Star Ticket Package. 

“Iowa is just different, man,” Blachman said. “The people are really nice. What I really like is it’s a growing organization. There’s people that are just genuine and nice. This thing is just getting started. People in the organization come with the expectation to win and do their work well. It speaks volumes about the people there. People forget this is a brand new organization, it’s just getting started, but the right people are behind the wheel.”