WALOS PERSEVERES, COMMITS TO SEAWOLVES
Tanner Walos was a highly-touted young prospect at just 16-years-old.
The Wisconsin native was coming off of a successful triple-A season with the Milwaukee Jr. Admirals in the spring of 2021, posting over 100 points in just 50 games, when he received an invite to tryout for the National Team Development Program - an event that less than 50 athletes in the entire United States get to attend each year. Around that same time, he also signed a USHL tender with the Fargo Force. Only seven athletes that season earned a tender in the USHL if that gives you an idea of the type of player that Walos was at such a young age. To add onto those accolades, the 5-foot-11 forward officially committed to play Division I hockey at the University of Wisconsin that year, too.
The trajectory of the teenage forward didn’t quite go how he expected though over the course of the next year. Walos signed his USHL tender under Fargo Force head coach Pierre-Paul Lamoureux but Lamoureux wound up stepping away from the team that offseason and was then replaced by Scott Langer. The 16-year-old now had to deal with being one of the youngest athletes on the team, living away from home for the very first time and building a relationship with the new coaching staff as well.
In his first season with the Force, Walos netted three goals and four assists over the course of 54 regular season games. It wasn’t easy as a young skater coming up from 15U AAA hockey the year prior but it was a learning experience that made him a better person as a whole.
“Having a rough year that first year shaped me into who I am today,” Walos said in an interview with Clean Sheet Hockey. “Even though it kind of sucked in the moment - I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
(Contributed Photo. Salmon Arm Silverbacks / Kristal Burgess Photography)
“It was definitely tough my first year and having limited opportunities after coming up from 15s where I basically played in every situation, I had never really been in the business aspect of hockey before so coming into that junior level, especially a league like the USHL, it was a big change,” Walos said. “Even though I wasn’t playing much I learned a lot from the older guys and learned more about what it’s like to play more in the business and what it takes, the dedication you have to have throughout the season.”
The 16-year-old also had to grow up quite quickly since he was living away from home for the very first time. Instead of being at his family’s home in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Walos made the move out to Fargo and had to adjust to being in a billet family. He was a bit worried and nervous about the change originally but he wound up having a great billet situation that helped him make the transition into junior hockey as smooth as possible.
After his first season in the USHL, more change and adversity popped up for Walos. The Force had another coaching change as Fargo parted ways with Scott Langer and hired Nick Oliver to lead the squad instead. The change wound up being a good thing though for the 5-foot-11 forward who posted 16 points through 48 games in his second season there, doubling his offensive output from the year prior.
“Literally the day after I got home [from his first season in Fargo] I was back on the ice and working out. I knew what it took at that point and it’s a different game at that level [the USHL],” said Walos. “Everyone says it’s faster, which obviously it is, but one thing that is really under-appreciated is being a good skater and being able to use your skating to create space rather than just with the puck and that’s something that I really worked on after my first year.”
(Contributed Photo. Salmon Arm Silverbacks / Kristal Burgess Photography)
Things changed AGAIN after his second year with the Force as Nick Oliver left the staff to become an assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin. This time, Brett Skinner was brought in to lead the Fargo squad. Walos started that season with the Force but after 31 games he made the decision to join the Salmon Arm Silverbacks of the BCHL instead.
“I wasn’t really sure what to expect … I was pretty nervous coming in,” he said about making the switch from one league to the other. “I talked to Tyler Shattock [the head coach] and Brooks Christensen [the general manager at the time] and they were confident in me and offered me a pretty solid role. I was just really excited to get started. When I got up here, it was awesome, I loved hockey again, it was just a blast.”
Having a good group of guys in Salmon Arm along with being surrounded by beautiful nature in the mountains, rivers and lakes in the area made for a great experience for the Hartland, Wisconsin, native.
That wasn’t the last change for Walos though as he had to reopen his collegiate recruitment during his time up in British Columbia. Walos originally committed to the Badgers under head coach Tony Granato but when was Granato was let go by the University in the spring of 2023 he then had to connect with new head coach Mike Hastings, who took over the program after previously leading Minnesota State University.
“When that originally happened, I wasn’t so sure what I was going to do,” he said. “Hastings and I talked and I thought we had an okay relationship but I just kept getting pushed back [regarding the timeline for when he would join the program], which obviously I understood, and at some point it just came down to it not feeling like the right fit.”
After a few months of being a collegiate free agent, Walos then made a decision on January 27, 2025, to announce a commitment to the University of Alaska Anchorage. The Salmon Arm forward is friends with defender Camden Shasby (currently in the NAHL), who he became friends with during his time in Fargo, and Shasby’s father, Matt, just so happens to be the head coach at UAA, so a familiar connection between the two originally opened up the discussion between Walos and the Seawolves program.
“Coach Shasby believed in me, which is a huge piece of it, but I’m just really lucky that I was able to find a spot there,” said the 5-foot-11 forward. “It just seemed like the right fit. The campus is beautiful, I love to be outdoors and I love to fish, love to hunt, I spend most of my time on the river or on the lake up here [in Salmon Arm] with my teammates so it seems like a great fit and a great situation.”
(Contributed Photo. Salmon Arm Silverbacks / Kristal Burgess Photography)
The 20-year-old currently has 10 points through 46 games with the Silverbacks in 2024-25 and a gritty 56 penalty minutes. He isn’t sure yet if he’ll be headed out to Anchorage for this upcoming fall or in the fall of 2026 since he has one more year of junior hockey eligibility. Whenever Walos does get out to Anchorage though, he is thinking of studying finance.
Seawolves fans can get excited about the two-way style of play that the Wisconsin native brings to the table. He is a guy who may not log a ton of points on the scoresheet but he can be responsible in the defensive zone, block shots, win faceoffs, kill penalties and do whatever it takes to get his team the win.
Walos comes from an athletic family and he is actually skating with his younger brother, Easton, this season in Salmon Arm, and his younger sister, Brylie, is also a talented athlete who is committed to play Division I soccer at Valparaiso University this fall. In his free time this offseason, Tanner is running a summer camp called the Walos Hockey Academy in Brookfield, Wisconsin, and you can find out more information about that here.
After having to jump over plenty of hurdles during his hockey career already, Walos could’ve easily given up or taken an easier path towards someplace else but his determination and his mindset of sticking with the process has paid off with a road towards a collegiate career in Division I.
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