Meet Cameron Reid, the 2025 NHL Draft prospect with only one mode: 'Very good'

The first time Shayne Stockton was on the ice with Cameron Reid, he turned to the coaches next to him and said, This kid is one of the best skaters Ive worked with.

At the time, Reid was 14 and had just arrived at Bishop Kearney High School in Rochester, N.Y.

Stockton had just retired from his playing career (which included four seasons of pro in Britain and France after four years in the NCAA at Holy Cross) and joined the Bishop Kearney Selects coaching staff.

Advertisement In his second of two seasons coaching Reid, he named him the captain of Bishop Kearneys U15 team.

A year and a half after that first skate, the Kitchener Rangers drafted Reid with the 10th pick in the 2023 OHL draft.

Today, three and a half years removed from that moment, Reid is a potential first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.

On the ice with them when Stockton first commented on Reids skating was Jack Murtagh, who would go on to USA Hockeys NTDP, become a potential first-round pick in the 2025 class and was described by Stockton as having breakaway speed himself.

But Reid was different as a skater and a kid.

The skating was just top notch.

But the kid was so mature for his age.

Reid was the kid making protein shakes in the dining hall at 14.

In his two years at Bishop Kearney, he was a straight-A student and won academic awards.

He was the kid who did homework on the road (which you dont see very often, according to Stockton).

At the rink, Stockton could go into details with him that other kids at his age couldnt grasp yet.

Once he saw him in a game, he knew he was a special player immediately because of the way he impacts the game both defensively and offensively.

The captaincy was a unanimous vote by his teammates.

Even kids on the U18 team called him Captain Reider because he was so well respected by everyone.

He was the kid who cleaned up after his teammates after a team meal, always made sure the bus was clean, put the nets on at the start of practices and picked up pucks at the end of them.

As the Zamboni lapped the ice after practices, hed stay out for sprints.

I literally wouldnt have to even tell him.

He was always like Coach, Ive got it and Id be like Yeah, I know you have it, so I dont have to worry about anything.

That was just the way he is, Stockton said.

I cant say enough good things about Cam.

He literally does the right thing in every single way.

He did everything extra.

And he had a really good personality, too.

He was more on the quiet side, but once hed open up, you could have conversations with him about anything.

Advertisement In Kitchener, Reid has made the same impression.

Though NHL Central Scouting gave him a B rating (which indicates a 2nd/3rd round candidate) on their preliminary players to watch list in October, Rangers head coach Jussi Ahokas predicted to The Athletic last summer that Reid would be a first-rounder.

By their midseason ranking, they had slotted him No.

27 among North American skaters eligible for the draft.

By years end, the 5-foot-11.75, 193-pound left-shot D had registered 54 points in 67 games, 12 more than any other U18 defenseman in the OHL.

He also finished plus-39, seventh-best among all OHL D and tops on the Rangers.

This season, Ahokas gave him an A as a 17-year-old (he also wore a letter at the OHL Top Prospects Game).

Under Ahokas, the Rangers break their season into 12-game chapters.

At the end of each, the players are rewarded for a successful 12-game segment.

Earlier this season, after a winning segment, the Rangers chose to ask to go to the CHL USA Prospects Challenge game in London to support Reid.

Kitcheners general manager, Mike McKenzie, talks about Reid as really the complete package on and off the ice.

Off it, he describes him like Stockton does, lauding his maturity, leadership ability and character one of those guys that people gravitate to, McKenzie said.

Hes very comfortable in his own skin at an early age, McKenzie said.

On the ice, he said Reids skating ability stands out most as well.

But he also talked about him as an undercover competitor.

You dont notice it all the time because he does play the game with his skating and his smarts, but hes got (an) undercover bite to his game in terms of standing up for teammates or battling and competing.

Hes a competitive kid, McKenzie said.

This season, when McKenzie fielded calls from scouts who talked about the trend that you need to be 6-foot-2/3 to play D in the NHL, he conceded that while there was some truth to that, when a player has the skating ability, competitiveness and smarts that Reid has, it can override it.

Advertisement More than that, he also doesnt play bad games, according to McKenzie.

Hes either very, very, very good or just very good.

Theres no average or above average ever, it seems, McKenzie said.

I think he has proven a lot of people wrong, and hes got a lot of people on his bandwagon now that maybe werent on it that subscribed to the fact that you need to be 6-foot-2/3 to play D in the NHL.

If he just continues to play the way he is that more and more people will jump on.

Its undeniable at this point that hes going to be a really good player.

You can believe whatever view you want, but hes a really good hockey player.

Stockton also said he was a beast in workouts.

He has worked hard to become that at strength and conditioning coach Scott Patons gym in St.

Thomas, Ontario, over the last two summers.

Hes a kid that does everything that needs to be done exactly as it needs to be done and believes in a system.

Hes full-in.

Thats the difference with him and some athletes, the work hes putting in away from the gym with nutrition, hydration, sleep and thats a consistent thing, Paton said.

And when he started to see the scale moving it was that much more motivating and then it reflected in his game what he was building in the gym with his strength, his speed and his power.

That stuff is through the roof and now hes like I cant get enough food in my body.

Paton, who has trained Joe Thornton for nearly 25 years and has worked with other NHLers from southwest Ontario such as Jason Demers, said Reid was very mature for his age in terms of his physique even when he first started with him and his growth since then has been phenomenal.

Last summer, Reid and Demers, also a defenseman, sat around the gym exchanging ideas and phone numbers one weekend.

During Thorntons playing career, he and Paton would often spend their summers training in Switzerland.

This summer, Thornton wants to go back and Paton hopes to bring Reid with him for a couple of weeks.

Advertisement (Being around and training with Thornton) has been huge for Cam, especially if you know Joe at all because hes super engaging and super excited for Cams career now and where its going to go, Paton said.

And him just sitting down and talking with Cam and giving him some insight is huge.

Same with Jason.

On the ice, his skating started at skates his dad, Bill, would run.

The Reids lived in St.

Thomas, Ontario, about half an hour south of London, when Cam was born, but moved further south to the tiny community of Copenhagen (with its population of about 300) just north of Port Bruce on Lake Erie when he was 4.

Bill used to laugh when Cam was growing up about how Copenhagen is probably one of the worst areas in all of Ontario to play AAA hockey.

There used to be a AAA team called the Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs out of nearby Aylmer that players such as Bo Horvat and Boone Jenner came up with.

But right before Reid started playing, they moved to Komoka, whose arena was a 55-minute drive from their home.

A professor in Fanshawe Colleges human relations department in London (he also developed a graduate certification in sport and event marketing), Bill started a side business through the skills development and technology firm Power Edge Pro (PEP) 12 years ago in order to fill the gap left behind locally.

Reid started doing PEP when he was 5 years old.

For years, his older brother Ethan, a web designer who is now 20 and recently moved to Thailand on a five-year work visa, would help run the skates with their dad.

They started working with kids from house league to AAA, but have trained pros and top juniors such as Brett Harrison and Beau Jelsma in recent years.

Reid would also help out, sometimes spending five hours a day on the ice during his dads sessions just skating.

Advertisement Before COVID, Bill was travelling to Chatham, London, Waterloo and Brantford.

He has slowed the business down over the last couple of years to reduce the travel, but still runs skates in smaller nearby communities such as St.

Thomas, Aylmer, Komoka and Dorchester.

Though an hour to Komoka became four hours to Rochester when Reid moved to Bishop Kearney in search of better competition as a teenager, the Rangers brought him closer to home and the drive shortened back to 1:15 to Kitchener.

The Reids have cherished that relative proximity to the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

And whenever the Rangers play in London, Bill reserves a box and divides it up among family, friends and the parents and billet parents of his teammates.

At the CHL USA Prospects Challenge game in London in November, they filled a 136-seat box to support Reid.

Its the closest he has been to our house in four or five years, Bill said.

It has been awesome.

It has been so big for us.

Bill jokes that his son didnt get his skating from his skates, though.

That, he laughs, comes from his moms side of the family.

His mom, Tanya Tilton-Reid, also works in HR as the head of HR for the Catholic Diocese of London.

But her cousin is Sherry Ball, a former Canadian Olympic figure skater.

Though Reid joked that hes never tried figure skates, hes quick to give them the credit instead of his dad, too.

He and Bill also give credit to New Jersey Devils player development coach Mark Voakes, who trained with Paton and started running skates for some of the locals (players such as 2026 prospect Parker Vaughan, Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan, and Blue Jackets prospect Max McCue) a few years ago.

In Reid, Voakes sees a player who might not need an Instagram-worthy highlight reel competition in the 2025 NHL Draft but would be way above average in every area of a skills competition.

Advertisement That well-roundedness will serve him well when he gets to the NHL, according to Voakes, but it can also be a double-edged sword as he tries to find a niche and break into a league where most of the players are really good at one thing and thats their calling card.

The skating might have to be Reids calling card.

When I watch Cam, I feel that the completeness to his game over time, you start to realize the value in what he brings.

And thats certainly not discounting or shortchanging any of his natural ability or skill set, Voakes said.

But Cams best asset is his ability to move.

So hes going to kill plays because hes going to win a puck race, not because hes going to be there at the same time and hes going to plow over someone.

You can defend in different ways.

Now, you can take what Cam is doing and be 6-5 and do that and be like wow, what a player but those guys are one in a gazillion.

Since they began working together a couple of years ago, Voakes has told Reid that he thinks he can do more than he does.

Hes such a coachable kid that to a fault hell stay in his lane, Voakes said.

The coach says Do this and we want you to go there, stop there and do it seven times in a row and hell do that and theres no issues but sometimes I think he has enough skill to just deviate a little bit.

And not where he makes the coach want to bench him but its almost like Hey, you know youre better than most guys out there, right? Its OK if you do just a little bit more.

And hes such a good kid that hes probably asking himself Why would I do that? Coach will get mad at me and why would I want him mad at me? Whereas other guys will be like I dont care! This is my show, and coach can deal with it! But hes got integrity and respect to him and his aroma is hes older than 17.

With reporting in London, Oshawa and Brantford, Ontario (Top photo: Tiffany Luke / Kitchener Rangers).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.