Adirondack Thunder: Jimmy Dowd Jr. On College, Defense, And The Professional Ranks

In a rare off-season interview, Olde City Sports Network sat down with Jimmy Dowd Jr., who is on the brink of his professional career. He talked about his junior days, his college play, being a defenseman, and coming in the professional realm of hockey.

Before his time at the collegiate level, Dowd spent four years in the junior system. Dowd completed one year with the New Jersey Junior Titans of the NAHL. He dressed in 40 games and gathered three goals and seven assists. Dowd then went on to the USHL, where he played two seasons with the Chicago Steel, and he also wore the “A” on his sweater in his final season with the Steel. While with the Steel, he dressed in 98 games and notched five goals and 35 assists. “My time at Chicago was really awesome, just the league overall as a whole prepares you for college hockey. Obviously, it's the top junior players in North America, and then you have some Canadians mixed in. Specifically for the steel, we took on such a development-like sort of process throughout that whole time there. Individual development was super important for the Chicago Steel and the organization. Our weeks were really just focused on individual development, and then we come together on the weekends and we play. I feel that the individual development model was the most important piece of my junior career. 
My time with the Chicago Steel was unlike any other organization. Obviously, you see that a program like NTDP follows a very similar model, and now a lot of other junior teams are doing it. I feel back then, the Steel were kind of the pioneers, other than NTDP, who were really focusing on that individual development and pushing guys to get better every single day themselves. You're just competing against the other top players in North America. It's an unbelievable league. The USHL. It just prepares you because when you get to college, it's bigger, faster, stronger, and it's more of a man's game. So just having all that preparation in the show and specifically with the Chicago Steel really prepared me when I came into Penn State.”

Photo Credit: Josie Chen/Philadelphia Inquirer

After spending time at the junior level, Dowd went to Penn State University in the NCAA and completed five years there, where he wore the “A” again in his final season. Dowd dressed in 150 games and tallied 12 goals and 83 assists. Dowd speaks on what Penn State taught him during his time there. “You're entitled to nothing, no matter who you are, no matter when you come in, and the core values and standards that Penn State is drilled into my head and Coach Gadowsky and the coaching staff and everyone has just taught us is you show up every day and work, put your head down and work, you're not entitled to anything. Control what you can control, a lot of cliches. What a good job that Gads (Gadowsky) and the coaching staff did was just drilled into our heads. It's not any easier when we leave here. Just transitioning from Triple A to Juniors, it's not any easier there. Then jump to NCAA and then NCAA to Pro, and now more than ever, it's a business. 
So you can't really let decisions that are out of your control or external factors get in the way of your mindset or how you think of yourself, how you believe in yourself. I just kind of have that mentality of I’m just going to show up every day to work and be the hardest worker and put in extra time and be a good teammate and have a good attitude. and just make those around me better and a big, big part of our mentality, at least last year, was iron sharpens iron mentality. Every day, you're making your teammates better; they're making you better. Every day, you either come closer to your goals or further away. You never stay even, but I was super fortunate and super grateful to be able to go here for the last, not four, but five years, you know. 
And just everything I've learned from Guy Gadowsky, Keith Fisher, and Andrew Sturtz, and the rest of the staff has really set me up for success moving on to my pro career.”

Dowd was part of the 2024-2025 season, which was the team that took the school to the NCAA Frozen Four Championship for the first time in school history after a 3-2 overtime win against the University of Connecticut. “It was unbelievable, and when you go back to our start of the season, we were 0-9, and then it was pretty much just a decision in the locker room. We can either show up every day and feel sorry for ourselves and be miserable that we got off to the worst start in program history, or we can buckle down and just take it day by day and get back to work starting now and see what happens. Coming back from Christmas break, we dropped the first game to Notre Dame in a shootout. 
So we didn't even get our first Big Ten win until our second game of the second half of the year. From then on we knew we kind of got that confidence, and then Michigan State came and we beat them in a shootout, and then we gained more confidence, and we just kept building every single day. We never really felt we were 0-9. We were always right there, one goal, one little bounce away. It just wasn't really clicking. It goes back to the mentality, just stick with it. Just keep going, no matter how much it sucks at the moment, because it can stink and you can really get your own head, and it can be down at the rank, but we just really came together and made history, and we were all a part of that team. It was just an unbelievable experience, looking back.” 

Photo Credit: Saed Hindash/Lehigh Valley Live

Like father, like son, Dowd comes from a hockey family. His father is Jimmy Dowd, who in his time playing, played for 10 NHL teams, including New Jersey Devils, Vancouver Canucks, New York Islanders, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, and Philadelphia Flyers. He played a total of 728 NHL games and 324 AHL games for Utica Devils, Albany River Rats, Saint John Flames, and Hamilton Bulldogs.  “He doesn't say much to me. 
I mean, the biggest things are to work hard, have fun, be a good teammate, and have a good attitude. He's always been like you want to be known as the hardest worker. You want to be known as the best teammate. 
You just want to bring a good attitude to the rink every day because that's really all that matters, and that's all you can control, the rest you can't control. Every time he checks in with me, he's just making sure, How are you doing, how are the guys doing? What's the vibe at the rink? 
How's everyone feeling, you know? He's never grilling me with questions. He's never been super critical of me, but the only thing he asked of me is that I work my hardest every day and I will be a good teammate.”

Playing at the NCAA level, Dowd has played with names that have gone on to the professional ranks before him. Dowd talks about what it was like to play with former Hershey Bear Alex Limoges, Utah Grizzlies Tyler Gratton, and Toledo Walleye’s Liam Souliere. “It was unreal. I'll start with Limo (Alex Limoges. He was my first collegiate captain. In my freshman year, I came in, and he was our captain. He was a guy who led by example every single day. He was a quieter guy, but he just came to the rink and did what he was supposed to do and was one of the best players on the ice. I really loved how Limo thought of the game and how he played the game at his own pace. Limo just has such spatial awareness when he's on the ice, and plays the game at his own speed. He wakes up every day, and he's just so grateful to be at the rink. 
Tyler Gratton, also another guy who I just love being teammates with. He was actually my little brother's captain at ASU when he went to Arizona State for that year, which was pretty cool, because my brother got to spend a year with him. He was a guy who worked every single day, no matter if we were in the gym, no matter if it was practice or a game. He always kind of brought that same mentality to everything he did. I loved being around him at the rink, off the ice. He's a super fun guy to be around. Liam Souliere, Suley came in with me. 
We were part of the same freshman class here, so we got really close. I've always just respected Suley's mentality towards everything. He came in and you don't see many smaller goalies nowadays. He's kind of that kid who's a smaller goalie, but he has that chip on his shoulder and he just works like a dog every single day. In practice, he's going game seven. He's always playing out rebounds. He just wants to be better the next day than he was the day before.” 


Photo Credit: Rob Cella/Bar Down Media

Having the skill set to play in today’s game is something that is worked on by every player. For Dowd, being a defenseman, it’s even more critical because the defenseman sees most of the ice during play. “You definitely have to be able to skate. Skating is the most important aspect today in the game, I believe. If you can't figure out how to be a good skater or I should say if you're not an efficient skater and know how to use it to your advantage. It's going to be tough as you go up and up. 
Hockey IQ is the biggest thing. If you can't think of the game, it's going to be tough because again, it just allows you to manage different situations. You have got to manage your body, manage your weeks, manage your load, especially when you're a pro.You're playing many games. Just being able to see the ice at a high level is the most important skill, in my opinion.”

Clearing the zone is constant during games and on everyones mind. For Dowd, he speaks on his preferred method for clearing the puck from the defensive zone. “It's just the passing rate and the passing efficiency and being able to get pucks on and off your stick and move pucks. Tape to tape passes. That's another thing my dad is kind of always glued into my head. If you can find that outlet right away, if you see a forehand, move it. There's no need to overhandle the punk or take your time, if you can transition as a defenseman.”

There is a mental aspect to playing each position, as a team, and the game as a whole. Having the mentality to keep going and pushing throughout the game is what matters the most. “You kind of just have to have a mentality. You just go out there and do what you're supposed to do. If you're doing the little details right and if you're working your hardest and some things go wrong and you get beat or whatever,  just forget about it. There's obviously going to be one-on-one situations. Kind of have that dog mentality of just defend hard, defend first, and then the rest of the game will come. You can't really dwell on past mistakes and whatnot. My teammate, my freshman year, Clayton Phillips, I remember we were in our training room at one point, and he was like, Jimmy, you got to have the memory of a goldfish. 
And I was like, Philly, what does that mean? And he was like, they forget what happened a second ago. I like that saying. Some of the best defensemen, Drew Doughty, Brett Burns, they're going to get beat one-on-one. Their ability to recover is just what makes them as special as they are.”

Taking a mental break from the ice is just as important to keep the brain and body refreshed during the season and during the off-season. Dowd speaks on what he likes to do to take a mental break from the rink. “Just enjoy life. Hang out with my teammates outside the rink and when I'm home in the summer, spend time with my family and pick up other hobbies too. I love going to the beach in the summers. 
I haven't been able to do that much surfing, which has been unfortunate, because we haven't really had that many waves. I love playing pickleball. 
I love golfing in the summers.
I'm up at Penn State for a couple weeks training before the prospect challenge. Just occupy your time with good things and things that you enjoy, things that are gonna spark your interest outside of the rink and things that you can work on and get better at outside the rink.”

Dowd is signed to an ECHL contract for the 2025-2026 season with the Adirondack Thunder and is currently participating in the Prospects Challenge in Buffalo, NY.

-Samantha Wismer/Olde City Sports Network