The primary time Shayne Stockton was on the ice with Cameron Reid, he turned to the coaches subsequent to him and stated, “This child is without doubt one of the greatest skaters I’ve labored with.”
On the time, Reid was 14 and had simply arrived at Bishop Kearney Excessive Faculty in Rochester, N.Y. Stockton had simply retired from his taking part in profession (which included 4 seasons of professional in Britain and France after 4 years within the NCAA at Holy Cross) and joined the Bishop Kearney Selects teaching workers.
In his second of two seasons teaching Reid, he named him the captain of Bishop Kearney’s U15 crew.
A yr and a half after that first skate, the Kitchener Rangers drafted Reid with the tenth decide within the 2023 OHL draft.
As we speak, three and a half years faraway from that second, Reid is a possible first-round decide within the 2025 NHL Draft. On the ice with them when Stockton first commented on Reid’s skating was Jack Murtagh, who would go on to USA Hockey’s NTDP, develop into a possible first-round decide within the 2025 class and was described by Stockton as having “breakaway pace” himself.
However Reid was completely different — as a skater and a child.
The skating was “simply high notch.” However the child was “so mature for his age.”
Reid was the child making protein shakes within the eating corridor at 14.
In his two years at Bishop Kearney, he was a straight-A scholar and received educational awards. He was the child who did homework on the highway (“which you don’t see fairly often,” in accordance with Stockton).
On the rink, Stockton may go into particulars with him that “different youngsters at his age couldn’t grasp but.” As soon as he noticed him in a sport, he “knew he was a particular participant instantly” due to the way in which he “impacts the sport each defensively and offensively.”
The captaincy was a unanimous vote by his teammates. Even youngsters on the U18 crew known as him “Captain Reider” as a result of he was “so effectively revered by everybody.”
He was the child who cleaned up after his teammates after a crew meal, at all times made positive the bus was clear, put the nets on initially of practices and picked up pucks on the finish of them. Because the Zamboni lapped the ice after practices, he’d keep out for sprints.
“I actually wouldn’t must even inform him. He was at all times like ‘Coach, I’ve obtained it’ and I’d be like ‘Yeah, I do know you may have it, so I don’t have to fret about something.’ That was simply the way in which he’s,” Stockton stated. “I can’t say sufficient good issues about Cam. He actually does the best factor in each single manner. He did every little thing additional. And he had a very good character, too. He was extra on the quiet facet, however as soon as he’d open up, you could possibly have conversations with him about something.”
In Kitchener, Reid has made the identical impression. Although NHL Central Scouting gave him a “B” score (which “signifies a 2nd/third spherical candidate”) on their preliminary gamers to observe checklist in October, Rangers head coach Jussi Ahokas predicted to The Athletic final summer time that Reid could be a first-rounder.
By their midseason rating, that they had slotted him No. 27 amongst North American skaters eligible for the draft. By yr’s finish, the 5-foot-11.75, 193-pound left-shot D had registered 54 factors in 67 video games, 12 greater than some other U18 defenseman within the OHL. He additionally completed plus-39, seventh-best amongst all OHL D and tops on the Rangers.
This season, Ahokas gave him an “A” as a 17-year-old (he additionally wore a letter on the OHL Prime Prospects Sport).
Below Ahokas, the Rangers break their season into 12-game “chapters.” On the finish of every, the gamers are rewarded for a profitable 12-game phase. Earlier this season, after a successful phase, the Rangers selected to ask to go to the CHL USA Prospects Problem sport in London to assist Reid.
Cameron Reid taking part in within the CHL USA Prospects Problem sport in London. (Eric Younger / CHL)
Kitchener’s common supervisor, Mike McKenzie, talks about Reid as “actually the entire bundle on and off the ice.”
Off it, he describes him like Stockton does, lauding his maturity, management potential and character — “a kind of guys that folks gravitate to,” McKenzie stated.
“He’s very snug in his personal pores and skin at an early age,” McKenzie stated.
On the ice, he stated Reid’s skating potential stands out most as effectively. However he additionally talked about him as “an undercover competitor.”
“You don’t discover it on a regular basis as a result of he does play the sport along with his skating and his smarts, however he’s obtained (an) undercover chew to his sport when it comes to standing up for teammates or battling and competing. He’s a aggressive child,” McKenzie stated.
This season, when McKenzie fielded calls from scouts who talked concerning the development that “you have to be 6-foot-2/3 to play D within the NHL,” he conceded that whereas there was some fact to that, when a participant has the skating potential, competitiveness and smarts that Reid has, it will possibly override it.
Greater than that, he additionally “doesn’t play dangerous video games,” in accordance with McKenzie.
“He’s both very, very, excellent or simply excellent. There’s no common or above common ever, it appears,” McKenzie stated. “I feel he has confirmed lots of people mistaken, and he’s obtained lots of people on his bandwagon now that perhaps weren’t on it that subscribed to the truth that you have to be 6-foot-2/3 to play D within the NHL. If he simply continues to play the way in which he’s that increasingly more folks will bounce on. It’s plain at this level that he’s going to be a very good participant. You’ll be able to consider no matter view you need, however he’s a very good hockey participant.”
Stockton additionally stated he was “a beast” in exercises.
He has labored laborious to develop into that at energy and conditioning coach Scott Paton’s fitness center in St. Thomas, Ontario, during the last two summers.
“He’s a child that does every little thing that must be achieved precisely because it must be achieved and believes in a system. He’s full-in. That’s the distinction with him and a few athletes, the work he’s placing in away from the fitness center with diet, hydration, sleep — and that’s a constant factor,” Paton stated. “And when he began to see the dimensions shifting it was that rather more motivating after which it mirrored in his sport what he was constructing within the fitness center along with his energy, his pace and his energy. That stuff is thru the roof and now he’s like ‘I can’t get sufficient meals in my physique.’”
Paton, who has educated Joe Thornton for almost 25 years and has labored with different NHLers from southwest Ontario equivalent to Jason Demers, stated Reid was “very mature for his age when it comes to his physique” even when he first began with him and “his progress since then has been phenomenal.”
Final summer time, Reid and Demers, additionally a defenseman, sat across the fitness center exchanging concepts and telephone numbers one weekend.
Throughout Thornton’s taking part in profession, he and Paton would usually spend their summers coaching in Switzerland. This summer time, Thornton needs to return and Paton hopes to deliver Reid with him for a few weeks.
“(Being round and coaching with Thornton) has been enormous for Cam, particularly if Joe in any respect as a result of he’s tremendous participating and tremendous excited for Cam’s profession now and the place it’s going to go,” Paton stated. “And him simply sitting down and speaking with Cam and giving him some perception is large. Identical with Jason.”
On the ice, his skating began at skates his dad, Invoice, would run. The Reids lived in St. Thomas, Ontario, about half an hour south of London, when Cam was born, however moved additional south to the tiny neighborhood of Copenhagen (with its inhabitants of about 300) simply north of Port Bruce on Lake Erie when he was 4.
Cameron Reid grew up in just a few cities throughout southwestern Ontario. (Courtesy of Invoice Reid)
Invoice used to chortle when Cam was rising up about how Copenhagen “might be one of many worst areas in all of Ontario to play AAA hockey.” There was a AAA crew known as the Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs out of close by Aylmer that gamers equivalent to Bo Horvat and Boone Jenner got here up with. However proper earlier than Reid began taking part in, they moved to Komoka, whose area was a 55-minute drive from their dwelling.
A professor in Fanshawe School’s human relations division in London (he additionally developed a graduate certification in sport and occasion advertising), Invoice began a facet enterprise by means of the abilities growth and know-how agency Energy Edge Professional (PEP) 12 years in the past to be able to fill the hole left behind regionally.
Reid began doing PEP when he was 5 years previous. For years, his older brother Ethan, an online designer who’s now 20 and not too long ago moved to Thailand on a five-year work visa, would assist run the skates with their dad. They began working with youngsters from home league to AAA, however have educated execs and high juniors equivalent to Brett Harrison and Beau Jelsma lately. Reid would additionally assist out, generally spending 5 hours a day on the ice throughout his dad’s periods “simply skating.”
Earlier than COVID, Invoice was travelling to Chatham, London, Waterloo and Brantford. He has slowed the enterprise down during the last couple of years to scale back the journey, however nonetheless runs skates in smaller close by communities equivalent to St. Thomas, Aylmer, Komoka and Dorchester.
Although an hour to Komoka grew to become 4 hours to Rochester when Reid moved to Bishop Kearney in quest of higher competitors as an adolescent, the Rangers introduced him nearer to dwelling and the drive shortened again to 1:15 to Kitchener.
The Reids have cherished that relative proximity to the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. And each time the Rangers play in London, Invoice reserves a field and divides it up amongst household, pals and the dad and mom and billet dad and mom of his teammates. On the CHL USA Prospects Problem sport in London in November, they crammed a 136-seat field to assist Reid.
“It’s the closest he has been to our home in 4 or 5 years,” Invoice stated. “It has been superior. It has been so huge for us.”
Left: Reid along with his mother Tanya. Proper: Along with his dad Invoice and brother Ethan. (Courtesy of Invoice Reid)
Invoice jokes that his son didn’t get his skating from his skates, although. That, he laughs, comes from his mother’s facet of the household. His mother, Tanya Tilton-Reid, additionally works in HR as the top of HR for the Catholic Diocese of London. However her cousin is Sherry Ball, a former Canadian Olympic determine skater.
Although Reid joked that he’s by no means tried determine skates, he’s fast to present them the credit score as a substitute of his dad, too.
He and Invoice additionally give credit score to New Jersey Devils participant growth coach Mark Voakes, who educated with Paton and began operating skates for among the locals (gamers equivalent to 2026 prospect Parker Vaughan, Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan, and Blue Jackets prospect Max McCue) just a few years in the past.
In Reid, Voakes sees a participant who won’t want an Instagram-worthy spotlight reel competitors within the 2025 NHL Draft however could be “manner above common” in each space of a expertise competitors.
That well-roundedness will serve him effectively when he will get to the NHL, in accordance with Voakes, but it surely can be a double-edged sword as he tries to discover a area of interest and break right into a league the place many of the gamers “are actually good at one factor and that’s their calling card.”
The skating may need to be Reid’s calling card.
“After I watch Cam, I really feel that the completeness to his sport over time, you begin to understand the worth in what he brings. And that’s actually not discounting or shortchanging any of his pure potential or talent set,” Voakes stated. “However Cam’s greatest asset is his potential to maneuver. So he’s going to kill performs as a result of he’s going to win a puck race, not as a result of he’s going to be there on the similar time and he’s going to plow over somebody. You’ll be able to defend in numerous methods. Now, you’ll be able to take what Cam is doing and be 6-5 and do this and be like ‘wow, what a participant’ however these guys are one in a gazillion.”
Since they started working collectively a few years in the past, Voakes has informed Reid that he thinks he can do extra than he does.
“He’s such a coachable child that to a fault he’ll keep in his lane,” Voakes stated. “The coach says ‘Do that and we would like you to go there, cease there and do it seven instances in a row’ and he’ll do this and there’s no points however generally I feel he has sufficient talent to simply deviate a bit of bit. And never the place he makes the coach need to bench him but it surely’s virtually like ‘Hey, you’re higher than most guys on the market, proper? It’s OK if you happen to do just a bit bit extra.’ And he’s such a great child that he’s in all probability asking himself ‘Why would I do this? Coach will get mad at me and why would I would like him mad at me?’ Whereas different guys will probably be like ‘I don’t care! That is my present, and coach can cope with it!’
“However he’s obtained integrity and respect to him and his aroma is he’s older than 17.”
— With reporting in London, Oshawa and Brantford, Ontario
(Prime picture: Tiffany Luke / Kitchener Rangers)
