Film Room: 'Unstoppable' Chase Reid is the 2026 NHL Draft's best defenceman
It's beyond difficult to believe that Chase Reid was once deemed not good enough to play in the USHL.
Thankfully, the NCAA rule change righted a wrong: After starting the 2024-25 season with the NAHL’s Bismarck Bobcats, Reid made the jump to the OHL midseason and never looked back, stepping into a top-four role and becoming an immediate impact player with the Soo Greyhounds.
His 1.03 points-per-game rate in his OHL rookie season was the third-best amongst draft-minus-one players in OHL history (minimum 30 games played), and laid the foundation for a bigger role in what was sure to be an impressive NHL draft season.
Logging 27:23 minutes a game on average, which jumped to 29:24 in the playoffs (and peaked at 41:36 in Game 3 against London), according to InStat Hockey, Reid flourished as the Greyhounds’ No. 1 defenceman. With each passing game, he continued to raise the bar, so quickly that he rocketed from 14th overall on our preseason ranking to third overall in November. And despite suffering an upper-body injury and missing 17 straight games in the second half, he wouldn’t relinquish that ranking for the rest of the campaign.
Not only was Reid one of the OHL’s best defenders this season, but he also made Team USA’s World Junior team as their youngest skater, where his role significantly increased after the team lost Cole Hutson to injury. He was named one of four finalists for the Max Kaminsky Trophy for the OHL’s most outstanding defenceman and to the OHL’s First All-Star Team.
Less than two years removed from playing in the NAHL, Reid’s growth and development curve has been otherworldly. First, he separated himself as the best defenceman in the entire 2026 NHL Draft class. Now, he looks poised to be a top-three selection at the draft.
Unstoppable engine
Reid is a one-man retrieval and breakout machine, thanks to his high-end skating. Frequent crossovers, great depth, and power allow him to explode out of his first steps as he traverses the ice, leaving forecheckers in his dust on retrievals and breakouts.
Aiming to limit the amount of time his team spends in the defensive zone, Reid balances aggression and patience well. He consistently finds the best play on retrievals, whether it’s proactive contact and getting inside positioning in a 50/50 race, chipping pucks to his defence partner, executing rim and bump passes, or settling possession himself.
Though there’s been a negative online narrative surrounding Reid’s puck management on breakouts, it’s more a consequence of being relied upon so heavily by the Greyhounds and playing nearly or over 30 minutes a game. He simply has the puck more often than most, and misplays will stand out more starkly.
More importantly, it was an area of his game that significantly improved in the second half. Rarely was Reid forcing passes or throwing pucks away – instead, he attracted and beat forechecking pressure with his feet before evading and escaping to move pucks up the ice. With his momentum constantly moving forward, he kept his head up, calmly deked around stickchecks, and found teammates cleanly with precise outlets.
Reid’s breakouts were barely an issue in the postseason against both London and Kitchener, two formidable forechecking teams. And once he escapes to start the rush or deliver pucks up ice to teammates waiting in the neutral zone, that’s when his offensive vision and abilities can truly take over.
Diverse offensive creation
Though not quite as dynamic a creator as the Lane Hutsons, Xavier Vileneuves or Matthew Schaefers of the world, Reid’s offensive game is expansive and creative. A clever, tactical playmaker, he controls the game in all three zones, constantly tilting the ice in his team’s favour.
Whether through pace changes and delays on carries through the neutral zone, fast give-and-gos as he drives the middle lanes, or speed bursts that see him barrel past defenders on his way to the net, Reid’s transition offence is masterfully planned. He accelerates into open space, shifts his weight to manoeuvre around opponents, cuts through the hands of defenders, and attacks inside lanes, often working give-and-gos.
Always looking to extend possessions and move play up ice, Reid rarely throws pucks away sooner than necessary. He constantly looks for the highest-value play, orchestrates complex passing plays, and uses a deceptive posture and fakes to freeze incoming pressure and opponents standing in his way.
Reid’s in-zone offensive creation will carry him to success in the NHL. He’s patient when drawing pressure, timing his movements perfectly before exploding laterally off the wall to lose defenders. He consistently attacks space off the point, and his details allow him to anticipate activation opportunities often before anyone else on the ice has realized they’re there.
A lethal finisher from both long and mid-range, Reid’s shot is even better than his playmaking. He opens up shooting lanes by walking the line, delaying his releases an extra second or two to bait defenders into moving before he unloads. With pin-point accuracy, he can thread the needle through heavy traffic, with the puck hitting the back of the net before goaltenders even realize the puck has come off his stick. And when he doesn’t hit the net directly, his shot creates opportunities for teammates to deflect the puck or rebounds at the goal-mouth.
Though his booming shot is the defining offensive tool in his arsenal, his playmaking took impressive steps this season. A clinical passer, Reid invites pressure in the offensive zone, often initiating contact early before spinning away in an instant. Processing coverage changes quickly, he spots lanes and seams before they’re open, and his passes connect with fierce precision.
And without possession, he’s a calculated off-puck activator, sneaking backdoor, finishing his routes off the rush, and getting open in space to shoot off the pass or execute a fast, one-touch passing play. Even without that additional, elite layer of dynamism, it shouldn’t impact his ability to drive offence in college or the NHL – Reid is a constant offensive threat who’s just as much of a beast in transition as he is inside the offensive zone.
Defensive habits and shutdown potential
Reid’s defensive skills are nearly as effective as his offensive creation, as he leverages a high degree of awareness and calculated habits to get stops.
Aggressive, though not overly so, he absorbs rushes early, combining impressive stickwork with physical engagement to a high degree of effectiveness. With superior backward agility and by keeping his momentum moving in the right direction, he angles, adjusts his backtracks, mirrors his footwork, and times his accelerations perfectly.
By taking space away with his stick and gap control before closing on opponents, Reid not only denies them passing lanes but often kills the attack outright. If he can’t get the stop early, he hammers the puck carrier into the walls to disrupt possession, winning the puck back with ease and kickstarting the rush up ice.
Reid’s cycle defence also improved significantly in the final part of the season. He leveraged his frame, battled heavily, engaged opponents wherever possible, and pinned them to the boards, applying relentless pressure to force turnovers and recover possession. Sometimes, he’ll let up on a retrieval, allow an opponent to arrive at the puck first, and then hammer him to the wall to neutralize the threat.
Using his frame and willingness to battle even more frequently will put Reid on the path to leveraging his shutdown skills successfully in the NHL. He’ll need to become even more proactive and assertive and anticipate developing plays sooner to turn it into a true strength of his game. But the fact that his physicality took a jump in the playoffs was all the more encouraging, proof that he can and is willing to play a heavier style of game when the game tightens up and the stakes rise.
What’s up with the production?
As Reid is an offensively inclined defenceman, there is the perception out there that his draft-year point totals – 18 goals and 48 points in 45 regular-season games; three goals and six points in 10 playoff games – weren’t that impressive.
It’s more complex than that.
When evaluating defencemen like Reid – as well as others in the new CHL landscape – it’s important to consider context. For one, the frequent assumption that CHL scoring has gone up is flat-out wrong: There were 507 fewer goals scored this season versus 2023-24.
Defencemen scoring is also trending down. There’s no easier way to figure that out than simply looking at the scoring leaders. In 2023-24, five defenders scored over a point per game; just three did this past season – Reid was one of them.
Such a downtick isn’t because the league has gotten watered down, either.
For the drama about OHLers leaving for the NCAA, there were just three early departures (i.e., leaving in a non-overage season) among players scoring over 1.15 points per game and six early departures total.
In exchange, the OHL has seen the number of American players more than double, from 35 two years ago to 88 this past season. The depth of the league has improved so much that there were just 34 full-time 16-year-olds versus 45 in 2023-24.
Reid, committed to Michigan State, wouldn’t even have played in the OHL if it weren’t for the NCAA allowing CHLers, nor would Caleb Malhotra, Nikita Klepov, Christian Humphreys, Jack Pridham, and several other top-end scorers.
Doing some quick era adjusting to just two years ago, Reid’s 1.07 scoring clip and 73-point pace would’ve been 1.19 and 81, respectively, including 30 goals. Era adjusting for the last ten years, he’s fourth among first-time NHL draft-eligible OHLers, ahead of Mikhail Sergachev, Thomas Harley, Jakob Chychrun, Sam Dickinson, Rasmus Andersson, Pavel Mintyukov, Rasmus Sandin, and only 0.12 points per game behind Matthew Schaefer and 0.16 behind Evan Bouchard.
While it’s too soon to say exactly what will be the new normal for the OHL and junior hockey as a whole, it’s time to adjust your priors. Reid’s production this season was more than adequate, and it’s the sum of all his parts that makes him worthy of a top-three pick and a first-overall contender in this draft class, not his production.
Long-term outlook
With superior control, awareness, and two-way skill, Reid has mastered the OHL game. The Greyhounds’ offence ran through him, and their defence was stabilized by him. He’s a transition beast, an offensive threat, and a reliable shutdown defender at the junior level.
Whether Reid heads off to college next season as expected or changes course and steps right into the NHL in the fall, he’s about as safe a top-pairing projection as it gets. With play-driving ability and an all-around, complete skill set, he should continue to follow his steep development trajectory, adding more layers and skills to both the offensive and defensive sides of his game as he further fills out his frame.
For whichever team calls his name at the draft, Reid will be a foundational piece for their blue line and a significant addition and building block for their long-term core. He checks every box: skating, size, hockey sense, details, playmaking, shot, physicality, and the confidence to become an NHL team’s No. 1 defenceman.
