Wheeling Nailers: A Talk With David Jankowski
On a Saturday morning, after an optional skate with the Wheeling Nailers, ahead of a 7:10 pm game against the Central Division team Cincinnati Cyclones, Nailers Forward David Jankowski sat down with Olde City Sports Network to talk about his NCAA days, his brother, and more.
Jankowski spent time in the NCAA before joining the ranks of professional hockey. He spent four years at St. Lawrence University, dressing in 110 games and tallying 20 goals and 33 assists. During his fifth year, he attended Michigan Tech and played in 28 games with four goals and five assists. “I think I'm playing five years of college hockey really helped me develop the defensive side of my game. College hockey is a lot of structure, and coming in as a freshman, if you can't play defense, you're not gonna play. So it kind of forces you to learn that side of the game, and I think that's just some skills that I brought with me to the pro game and helped me be more of a trusted player out there.” During his time with St. Lawrence, Jankowski held the role of Captain during his final year with the program. “I really special to to wear the C for that program. I love St. Lawrence, and I loved all my teammates there and the staff and and the community, so being able to to be chosen by my staff and teammates to represent that is just really special and something I'll cherish forever.”
Hockey is a small world, and most times, players who were former teammates in college or juniors will either end up playing together or facing off against each other in the professional ranks. This is the case for Jankowski, who is playing with former Michigan Tech teammates Logan Pietila and Jack Works. “When you get to play with guys down the road that you played with before, Jack Works is another guy who we all played together at Michigan Tech. I lived with Worksy [Jack Works] at Tech as well, so, it's kind of fun to reconnect now and be able to have some chemistry, on and off the ice together. I think it makes for a more comfortable transition for those guys to pro hockey when you know some familiar faces.”
If Jankowski’s name sounds familiar, it is because he is the younger brother of Carolina Hurricanes Forward Mark Jankowski. Coming from a hockey family, the Jankowskis work out in the summers and help to keep each other going throughout the season. “We text all the time, we talk on the phone a lot too. We train together in the summers and skate together as well. He just keeps me grounded, especially more so in tough times when things aren't going my way or something that he tells me, you know, he's been there before, he's gone through the same stuff and and just to keep working through it, pushing through it and it's never as bad as it seemed. He's really good at staying level-headed and never getting too high or too low, so he's helped me with that a lot.”
Making the post-season is never an easy feat for some teams, and most often, it comes down to the very last game of the regular season. For Wheeling, they punched their ticket to the 2025 Kelly Cup Playoffs on March 30th, 2025. Applying what a player has learned in past playoff runs is important to carry over into the next season. “I think it's really important to go through that last year. Going through the high of making that last playoff push down the stretch to finally squeak in there came down to like the last game, so that that was important to go through. Then the highs of beating Indy in the first round and then the lows of obviously ultimately losing to Toledo. You have to learn to lose in order to win, and I think you can see that in all levels of pro hockey. It's pretty rare for a team to just come in and win right away. You have to go through those hard times, and I think we're gonna take those lessons that we learned and how quickly a season can end and how terrible that feels and and kind of carry that feeling with us.”
Jankowski was brought into Wheeling and signed his first professional contract after his collegiate season with Michigan Tech had ended in the 2022-2023 season. “It was exciting. Yeah, it's what you dream about growing up is playing pro hockey. So having that opportunity was really special. I think it kind of gets lost in the hustle and bustle of getting here and playing, but once you kind of realize that you're playing hockey for a living and it's pretty special. You kind of realize that not everyone gets to do that. Playing a game for a living is pretty cool and something that I try not to take for granted and try and take that with me every day.”
Every player has a strength that they can hone in on and make their own. Being a versatile player, like Jankowski, is his biggest strength. “I think my hockey sense is probably my biggest strength. My vision and being someone who can be relied upon at both ends of the ice. Whether that's contributing offensively or being able to shut down one of their top lines defensively, and kind of being able to play wherever I need to. Whether that be on the power play, the penalty kill last minute. Just trying to be a guy who can be trusted in all situations. So my versatility would be my strength that I would say.”
Part of being a hockey player is having to make quick and decisive decisions while on the ice during play. Communication on the ice and on the bench has to be there with the linemates, or it will reflect in the game. Jankowski touches on how he makes those decisions while on the ice. “I think it's just all repetition. I think growing up, I was a really small guy throughout minor hockey. I was always the smallest guy on my team, so I didn't really have size to my advantage, so I was kind of forced to play quick and think quick or else, you know, I wasn't gonna make it. So I think that I had a growth spurt, and now I have some size to go along with that, and I think that's ultimately helped me make a transition to pro and college and everything. So having that ability to make quick decisions from being a smaller player and pairing that with some size now, I think it's been helpful.”
Throughout life, as humans, we learn lessons that make us better people along the way. Jankowski touches on what he believes has been his biggest lesson throughout the years of hockey. “I mean, there's so many lessons throughout the years. I think one it's just kind of something we talked about before is just hockey, sometimes it is a hard game. It's a hard lifestyle at times, and I think it's just not getting too high and not getting too low, because if you get too high, complacency is ultimately death in the sport; you don't wanna be complacent. At the same time, if you get too low, you can allow that to spiral. It will really take over your game. So I think just stay level headed, trying to be even keel and just take one shift at a time, one day at a time.”
When players are in juniors, and move to college hockey, and move to pro hockey, an abundance of memories are created along the way. Jankowski reflects on what his favorite memory has been. “My favorite hockey memory is winning the ECAC championship with St Lawrence in the 2021 season. It was really special. We were able to be Quinnipiac in the finals and in their building, and I think winning a championship with the team is the ultimate goal. Once you do that, you have a bond for life with those guys, and everyone involved in it, really. So you know, I still talk to guys from that team daily, and we all still stay in touch, and I think that's just something special about sports, and when you get your championship with that team, you're gonna have that for life.”
Jankowski has played in 68 games this season for the Wheeling Nailers. He has notched 11 goals with 25 assists throughout the season. In the 2023-2024 post-season with the Nailers, Jankowski dressed in seven games and tallied one goal with three assists.
-Samantha Wismer/ Olde City Sports Network
-Photo Credit: Samantha Wismer & Stacey Grubich/ OCSN