Buffalo, N.Y. — If he could hop in a time machine and speak to the 16-year-old version of himself, Chase Reid would have one message: Never give up.
Not when a late birthday made him the youngest player in his age group, and being a late bloomer didn’t help much either. Not when his parents lacked the money and NHL contacts that some of his peers could throw around in AAA hockey. Not when the jump to junior hockey saw him healthy scratched by the USHL’s Waterloo Black Hawks, then sent down to the second-tier NAHL.
Because two years after a gut check in his first year of junior hockey, Reid is the top-rated defenseman in his 2026 NHL Draft class. He’s likely to be taken in the first five picks Friday night at Buffalo’s KeyBank Center. And the Chesterfield native will suit up for Michigan State, his childhood fandom, this coming season.
“If I knew what was going to happen now, I would have just told myself to keep pushing through,” Reid said Thursday, surrounded by microphones and cameras. “The end result’s going to be what you want it to be.”
Once under the radar, Reid is now one of the biggest names at the draft. The process of getting here strengthened his resolve.
“I love the pressure,” Reid said. “I think I play better under pressure. I think I have been fighting adversity my whole life, so I think I definitely know how to handle it.”
And if there’s anyone to thank for that, it’s the family that has stuck with Reid along the way.
‘If you want it, you gotta get it’
“It’s such a great lesson for young kids.”
That’s what Bismarck Bobcats general manager Niko Kapetanovic said of Reid’s story, including the 2024 phone call he got from Waterloo GM Bryn Chyzyk (now at North Dakota) that resulted in Reid coming to the NAHL.
Kapetanovic was well aware of what Reid did in the Michigan AAA ranks with Victory Honda, where he’d shined as an offensive defenseman even if he was on the younger side of his age group. When Reid jumped up to the USHL, though, he struggled. In 10 games, he never scored; he was even healthy scratched. Maybe playing at a lower level would help. Did Kapetanovic have a spot for him?
He did, but the unspoken question was how Reid would respond to the reassignment. Kapetanovic won’t go so far as to call it a cut — the leagues swap players often, though rarely of Reid’s caliber. And when they do, the attitude doesn’t always beget success.
“That can eat at someone, but Chase is very mentally tough,” Kapetanovic told The Detroit News. “And he was raised extremely well by his parents, who did a fantastic job.”
That’s a theme that comes up from nearly anyone asked about Reid — his family. Reid’s father, RJ, works as a Penske salesman, and his mom, Magyn, is a competitive dance teacher and insurance agent. It was mom that imparted a lasting lesson.
“My mom always said, ‘If you want it, you gotta get it,’” Reid said. “I want to play in the NHL, and that’s always been my goal. … My mom taught me in my younger ages to just embrace the moment wherever you are, and where you are is where God put you.”
Whether God — or Chyzyk, or Kapetanovic, or Reid himself — put him there, Reid wound up 1,100 miles from home in North Dakota.
“He’s almost on an island, moving away from home,” Bismarck coach Garrett Roth told The News.
When Roth would speak with Reid’s parents, the questions weren’t about playing time or development. They were about his mental state and how he was handling such adversity while being cast so far from home.
Instead of sulking about his situation, Reid embraced his opportunity with Bismarck. On a veteran team, he came in as the seventh defenseman in the rotation. And he embraced the role. He played simple, within himself. Coaches had to urge him to take risks. Teammates, enamored with his leadership, gravitated toward the new guy.
“He was so humble,” Roth said. “He came in and he just wanted to be part of our group. He wanted to do whatever he could to earn ice time.”
Eventually, Reid started to get the hang of things. He rose up the depth chart, into the top four. He started to make more dynamic plays, and with that came the scoring numbers, six goals and six assists in 18 games with the Bobcats. Seven of those came in his final weekend with Bismarck. What a turnaround, and it was only just beginning.
“It got to a point where even us as a staff, I was like, Chase isn’t going to be here much longer,” Kapetanovic said.
How Soo-eet it is
Instead of heading back to the USHL, Reid opted for a different route. New NCAA rules allowed players to go to the Canadian Hockey League. Bismarck approved his transfer to the OHL’s Soo Greyhounds. This time, Reid didn’t wait around to make an impression.
“You noticed him right away,” said fellow freshman Ethan Belchetz, a first-round draft candidate himself who played for the Windsor Spitfires.
Reid’s name didn’t yet carry its current reputation when he joined the Greyhounds, but it didn’t take him long to make a mark when he got there. Reid scored 40 points in 39 games after his call-up, and added three assists in five playoff games. He was thrown into the fire, sometimes playing 30 minutes a night. He earned first-team all-rookie status in the OHL.
But Reid says it wasn’t just the competition he faced that made him better.
“I think also playing alongside some of the best players in the world definitely helps you succeed at that level as well,” Reid said.
He’s talking, in particular, about Brady Martin, the fifth overall pick of the Nashville Predators last season. You may remember him from having his draft party on the family farm in Ontario. And true to a farm boy’s reputation, Martin set an example for Reid to follow. He even took him back to that family farm once for a visit.
“He works like a dog every day on the ice and in the weight room as well,” Reid said of Martin.
As Reid doubled down on his own work, there came even better results. He became a plowhorse, logging 30 minutes of ice time in some games. He scored 48 points in 45 games last season, plus six points in 10 playoff games for the Greyhounds. NHL dreams that Reid could’ve cast aside a year prior started to feel more real.
“No matter how much life throws in your face, it’s always possible to do what you want to do in life,” Reid said. “I want to play in the NHL, so I’ve never given up on that.”
Closer to home
Before the NHL comes college, and for that he won’t have to travel quite as far. He’s headed to Michigan State, where his under-the-radar story and the work ethic it embodies fits the mantras of Adam Nightingale’s team like a glove.
For Michigan State, Reid gives the backend a bona fide playmaker who can quarterback a power play and control the pace of play at both ends. For Reid, Michigan State — where his aunt went to school — gives him a highly regarded coaching staff to learn from.
It’s also a lot closer than Bismarck and Sault Ste. Marie. That’s a big deal for him and his family.
“Just being close to home,” Reid said. “Moving away all over the states for juniors and stuff like that and then having the opportunity to play at a school that’s an hour-and-a-half from home. It was pretty much a no-brainer. And all the opportunities and facilities they have there pretty much gave me every reason to want to be a Spartan.”
Part of the package at Michigan State is strength and conditioning coach Will Morlock, whose transformations of players such as Charlie Stramel and Porter Martone have given him a world-class reputation in his field. Reid, at 6-foot-2 and 194 pounds, is excited for the tutelage of Morlock — something he already experienced before this month’s NHL Combine.
“Working with him before the combine definitely helped,” Reid said. “He brought me in and just kind of threw me right in. I started working out and put on a couple pounds and (I) was definitely getting stronger. It was noticeable, so it was really cool. I can’t wait to get started this season.”
Neither can his teammates, especially his fellow freshmen in a loaded class. That includes Belchetz, OHL leading scorer Nikita Klepov, plus fellow first-round hopefuls Jack Hextall and Brooks Rogowski. Goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen is also part of the class.
In Klepov’s assessment, Reid is one of the toughest players he faced in the OHL last year.
“He skates really good, and his decisions with the puck and just the way he plays — he’s a really good player,” said Klepov, who played for the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit and coach Chris Lazary last season. “It’s obviously very nice to have him on your line than play against him.”
In the meantime, all of them are relishing the NHL Draft process and its rewards, especially Reid, who gets to enjoy the fruits of his labor alongside the family that instilled the principles that carried him forward. His parents and younger brother are all in Buffalo for this weekend’s festivities. There’s a chance he could even be picked by the host team, which acquired the fourth overall pick from the Chicago Blackhawks in a trade.
“I think everyone’s just super excited,” Reid said. “We’re all excited to go walk the red carpet tomorrow to come into the draft and just show everyone that no matter how much life throws in your face, it doesn’t matter and that everything’s possible.”
cearegood@detroitnews.com
@ConnorEaregood
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Chase Reid made his own path to NHL Draft, Michigan State
Reporting by Connor Earegood, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Connor Earegood, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
