Niko Tournas always had a scoring touch.
But after netting just two goals in 41 games during 2023-24 with the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, the game wasn’t feeling quite the same. He needed a fresh start.
“After that year, hockey felt more like a job than something fun, something that I always loved,” the Redding, Conn., native reflected.
Enter Lenny Caglianone and the NAHL’s Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks.
Last season, the 32-year-old Caglianone embarked on his own fresh start as a first-year coach in one of the top junior leagues in the United States. He knew that Tournas was a player who could help him start to blaze a new path for the Hat Tricks.
“I knew it was going to be a tough undertaking,” Caglianone said of inheriting a Danbury team that had finished only at the bottom of the NAHL’s East Division through its initial four seasons of existence. “I didn’t shy away from that, so I needed that one kid that was going to get me out of the mud, and Niko needed that one coach that was just going to believe in him. We just had this tremendous mutual ground.”
Tournas played no small part in the Hat Tricks setting a single-season franchise record for wins with 23 last winter. He recorded 39 goals and 74 points in 56 games, finishing as the second-leading goal scorer in the NAHL and earning a spot on the All-NAHL team.
What a goal Niko Tournas!!#TopProspects pic.twitter.com/WpbseiygDI
— NAHL (@NAHLHockey) February 18, 2025
Seeing the puck find the twine again has changed everything for Tournas, a 6-foot-2, 198-pound winger who is spending this season with the reigning QMJHL champion Moncton Wildcats.
“(Caglianone) probably helped save my career. I’d say he was the best coach I’ve ever had,” Tournas said. “He helped me realize, like, ‘Listen, this is either going to be the end of your career or the start, either the last stop on the train or the first stop.’ He was more of a friend than a coach, but he also expected me to do pretty much everything on the ice. … He was a big mentor, helping me get those touches that I needed coming off (a tough USHL season).”
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Tournas’ current stop in New Brunswick marks the last in a long journey to the University of New Hampshire, where he will play at the Division 1 level in Hockey East starting next fall.
Of course, with changes across the hockey world happening rapidly, it wasn’t always supposed to be that way. The NCAA’s eligibility rules allowing CHL players into college hockey didn’t change until late last year, so Tournas initially had planned on returning to the USHL after the Sioux Falls Stampede made him a first-round draft pick in May.
But a visit north changed everything. After being drafted by the Wildcats a month later, getting a taste of the pro-style atmosphere and culture in Moncton made Tournas’ decision to play in “The Q” a no-brainer.
“It’s definitely an adjustment hockey-wise, but you quickly see (the quality of the program) in the culture and the facilities,” including playing in front of 5,000-plus fans every home game, Tournas said. “Coach Gardiner MacDougall has pretty much won at every single level, so with the culture he has in the room, there’s nothing else you can do. Once (Moncton) wanted to draft me and had that faith in me and then after I came up here, I felt maybe this was the spot I wanted to be.”
Tournas’ early impressions of the QMJHL are quite similar to pro hockey in that “everyone can score, everyone plays heavy,” he described, but the decision to make the step has paid off for both him and the Wildcats.
Success has followed. He was immediately thrust into a top-six role when Moncton broke training camp in mid-September and has remained there, netting a team-leading 26 goals and 45 points through his first 38 regular-season games.
“That confidence he got back last year, I think he’s just embraced that and increased that,” said MacDougall, the reigning CHL Coach of the Year. “All of a sudden, he said, ‘Oh, I can not only be just a player in this league, but I can be a really, really good player.”
Based on his early-season play, Tournas earned his way back onto NHL Central Scouting’s preliminary players to watch list for the 2026 NHL Draft with a ‘C’ rating, making him a candidate for a projected fourth- or fifth-round selection.
In NHL Central Scouting's midterm rankings, Tournas got bumped up to Round 3, No. 81 overall among North American skaters.
How? The scoring ability that Tournas is known for is back at the forefront, but he has also continued to round out his game.
“He’s got a lot of natural ability … and you always need goal scorers, especially when you’re bringing a lot of new players in,” MacDougall said. “But he loves hockey. At our practices, he’s one of our most improved guys. … He’s always building the toolbox that he can bring to our team. He’s got an outstanding attitude and a great work ethic.”
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Though it was less than two years ago that Tournas worked his way through the USHL, getting back on the road to scoring success has felt long.
Tournas has learned from every opportunity that he has gotten and hopes that his journey — which also included stops at Joel Barlow High School in his hometown and with the New Jersey Rockets organization — is one that other junior and college prospects can learn from.
“I know I said I wouldn’t take back going to the USHL, but if I had to, I would stay home and develop for an extra year,” Tournas said. “Don’t leave unless you’re given that top-six spot. At the end of the day, you want to go where you’re going to play and perform at your best, so if you’re not, develop for that extra year.”
Making his way in a lineup that includes several fellow New Englanders, Tournas’ performance and confidence all trace back to showcasing a high-level shot and seeing the puck go in the net. Having such an impact at this level comes with a new rush.
“I’ve kind of always had a thing for scoring ever since I was little,” he said. “There’s nothing better than the adrenaline rush you get once the puck goes behind the goalie, but doing it in front of so many fans is something you don’t understand until it happens.
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“It’s crazy, especially at home. In a way, it feels just as good (on the road) when it’s silent.”
Tournas is hoping he gets to experience that quite a bit this year. If this strong start continues, he should have no problem doing so.
