Dan Nimick is becoming the leader the Wanderers desperately need

Amidst the losses, which have trended from unlucky to unsightly, there's a silver lining: Dan Nimick is becoming the player he was always meant to be.

You could argue he was Halifax's best player in his first professional season. He was nominated as the CPL Defender of the Year. He was the league's Player of the Month in August. He logged a full 90-minutes in all but one of the Wanderers' regular season matches. Crunching tackles, goals, assists; you name the statistic, and you'd likely find Nimick's name amongst the squad's leaders.

But there's also another side to the Labrador-born but England-raised centre-back: he's been a captain everywhere he's played. It's one of the reasons he was selected 42nd overall by the Vancouver Whitecaps in the 2022 MLS SuperDraft and one of the reasons why, shortly after being told he wouldn't get a sniff at the first team, newly appointed Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar came knocking with an opportunity for him to play in the CPL. Leadership, be it with the Western Michigan Broncos in the NCAA or at Leeds United back in England, has always been part of Nimick's DNA as a player. It's one of the reasons Nimick was announced as part of Halifax's leadership group alongside captain Andre Rampersad and assistant captain Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé.

And on Thursday night, with the sounds of CS Saint-Laurent's celebrations ringing across the Wanderers Grounds, Nimick took another step in becoming the player he was always meant to be for the Wanderers: he took the mic and spoke like the leader he's become on and off the pitch.

"I think in the end it comes down to the fight out there. We know they're not better players than us, they just wanted it more," he told reporters. "At the end of the day that's what wins football matches. You can be as technical as you want, as good of players as you want but if the other team wants it more than you, they're going to win the game and that's what happened."

When asked about what was needed to get the Wanderers back on track after dropping their first four matches of the season, Nimick was clear that now was the time for the team to figure it out.

“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board now, work harder than we ever had in training, fix things, and hold guys accountable now. There’s no time to hide now, it’s do or die. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we plan on fixing it," he said.

Nimick certainly backed up his words with his play against Saint-Laurent. He was visibly one of the best Wanderers on Thursday, bailing his side out with a Herculean block in the first half following a dangerous counterattack. Later, with Saint-Laurent pushing with numbers up the pitch, he picked off a cross into the box and purposefully counted the number of Wanderers players caught upfield, calling on them to wake up. He scored a PK goal; he again beat Saint-Laurent keeper Konstantinos Maniatis in the do-or-die penalty kicks. Fans will know Nimick wasn't the reason the Wanderers lost to a semi-professional side but it's clear he wants to be part of the solution.

And the urgency, undoubtedly, is building for Gheisar and his staff despite the fact that Halifax is almost in the exact same position as they were a year ago. They are a mere win away from tying their points total at this point last season.

The real story can be found in the manner Halifax has lost.

Part of what makes the Wanderers situation seem so bleak, especially after getting knocked out of contention for the Voyageurs Cup, is that this group has set the goal of bagging some silverware for the first time in the club's history. They know they've got the talent to compete, even if their quality hasn't always been visible on the pitch. But they know it's still there.

Speaking to The Wanderers Notebook last week, Nimick shared the group's aspirations for 2024 and they're about what you'd expect for a club that finished tied for second on the table last year and was so close to moving on in the playoffs.

"My number one goal this year is to bring back some silverware to the club, which we weren't able to do last year. Individual awards don't mean anything if there isn't a collective award at the end of it. That's the number one focus this year," he said.

Nimick also made it clear that although 2023 was a great year for him personally, and he was honoured to be named an assistant captain, he expects more from himself.

"I was really happy with the way last year ended up going. Going into this year, I'm just looking to build off of that. Whether last year ended in a nomination or an award, it doesn't change the outlook I had on my season. I know how I performed. Obviously, the outside praise is nice to hear but it doesn't change the way I feel about how I played," said Nimick.

"There's a lot of great leaders on this team and I'm sure the coaches were spoiled for choice when they were deciding a couple of guys to help out Rampersad. It happened to be me and (Gagnon-Laparé) but anyone within the leadership group and throughout the team could have stepped up really effectively I think."

But Nimick isn't perfect; he makes errors and is learning as he grows into himself as one of the top players in the league. He expects a lot of himself but so do his coaches and teammates.

Speaking to the media after their loss to Vancouver, Gheisar discussed what Nimick needs to do to get from the CPL to where he wants to go with his footballing career.

"Dan has high aspirations," said Gheisar. "Dan's biggest challenge to go to the next level will be consistency, right? Against Pacific, he completed 70, 80 passes. Tonight, he had the most passes on the field as a defender. He ran 12 kilometres; he's done a lot of good. But the problem is, we all say: 'Is Dan one of the top one or two defenders in this league?' If he is, he has to perform better than that tonight. But I believe in him and sometimes expectations for young men gets the worst out of you and sometimes the best out of you."

It's hard to argue the Wanderers aren't almost always getting the best out of Nimick and it's one of the reasons he garnered attention from MLS and Europe last season.

And in many ways, his personal situation mirrors that of the Wanderers: on the precipice of something great, with a final goal realistically within sight. The story on if they get there, however, remains unwritten.

The question is how will the Wanderers get from where they are — probably at the lowest point they've been under Gheisar's reign — to where they know they can go? Nimick will certainly help as he becomes the leader they so desperately need.

Further reading:

• ‘Daniel’s the full package’: Nimick making a name for himself with HFX Wanderers
• By the Numbers: Nimick, Loughrey are a known quantity to HFX Wanderers — but how much will they experiment with their centre-back pairings?
• Despite red card, Wanderers go down fighting in home opener that showed signs of promise

Cover Photo Credit: Trevor MacMillan / Halifax Wanderers FC