The pressure is mounting on this young hockey player.
At age 18 he's the captain of his Western Hockey League team and currently in fifth place in the league in scoring. He is one of the 25 names on Canada's roster for the World Junior Hockey Championships selection camp, a virtual lock to make the team and grab a lead role as the boys of Christmas try to win the country's first gold since 2009. Those are pretty big things, but then there's this: at the moment he sits atop most lists of the top prospects heading into the 2014 NHL draft. If the draft were held today, the first GM to take the mic could very well say, "We're proud to select, from the Kootenay Ice... ." That sounds like a pretty pressure packed few months coming up for a young hockey player. But then again, West Vancouver's Sam Reinhart is no ordinary young hockey player. He's seen all of this before, been close enough to taste the free draft-day snacks, to smell the stink of an NHL dressing room.
His father is Paul Reinhart, a former NHL star with the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks. His oldest brother is Max Reinhart, a forward who suited up with him in Cranbrook with the Ice before getting drafted by those same Flames. At age 21 Max has seen action in 15 NHL games and is up with the big club now. Sam's other brother is Griffin Reinhart, a defenceman with the WHL's Edmonton Oil Kings who was picked fourth overall by the New York Islanders in the 2012 NHL draft.
Pressure? What pressure? This, it seems, is just normal life for a Reinhart.
"Being able to see my brothers go through it and having my dad there to support me and really know what everything is all about has had a huge impact on my career so far and influenced it in a great way," Sam told the North Shore News during a recent phone interview. "My brothers definitely have made it easier on me, Max in particular for Griffin and myself. I really have to thank the two of them for that."
Sam is taking full advantage of the trail blazed by the rest of his talented family. In fact, if pre-draft hype is any indication, he may just end up being the best of the whole bunch. Through 31 games this season he has 16 goals and 31 assists, big numbers that are keeping him in the conversation for top spot in the upcoming NHL draft. He's doing his best to block out the buzz but it can be tough to ignore when the likes of Craig Button and Bob McKenzie have you sitting at No. 1 on their draft lists.
"Obviously it's in the back of your mind, it's kind of hard to get away from it at this point," Reinhart said. "There's always going to be so much talk about it throughout the year. I think I'm pretty good at not thinking about it, keeping it at the back of the head.. .. The focus definitely has to be in the present and wherever you're at. Right now it's with Kootenay."
On Wednesday night Reinhart put his skills on display in his hometown as the Ice took on the Vancouver Giants. Several coaches and young players from Hollyburn Country Club, Sam's old stomping grounds, were in attendance as the former Husky created scoring chances all night, assisting on one goal in what turned out to be a 3-2 win for the Giants (fellow North Shore product Jackson Houck of North Vancouver scored the game winner for Vancouver late in the third period).
With the homecoming over Sam will soon set his sights on making Team Canada for the world juniors. With only 25 players named to the selection camp there won't be many cuts. Even so, Reinhart said he will do whatever it takes to make the team and help Canada win.
"It would be a huge honour," he said. "I think at this point the coaching staff knows what each player brings. I think I bring some versatility to the lineup, I can play in many different roles. Whatever is needed of me I'll be able to produce."
The World Junior Championships might also offer another opportunity for Sam to play alongside Griffin, something he did for one game last week for a WHL all-star team in
the Subway Super Series against Russia. Griffin is also going to the Team Canada selection camp and is expected to make it despite carrying a threegame suspension over from the 2012-13 world juniors. Sam is looking forward to hitting the ice with his bro.
"It's a lot better playing with him than against him," he said with a laugh, adding that WHL battles against Griffin are always amongst the toughest games on his schedule. "He's just such a big-body presence back there and so smart with the puck. It's hard to go around him. I don't know if he's just trying to do that against me or what the deal is there but personally I find it very difficult playing against him."
Whatever happens on the ice, Sam said the Reinharts are very good at leaving hockey at the rink whenever they meet up as a family.
"In the summer we're all best friends," he said, adding that they did play a lot of hockey together growing up but there was "not as much as you would expect" in the Reinhart home.
"Obviously we did play a lot of hockey, more than our fair share on the ice, but my parents certainly weren't pushing hockey," he said. "In the summer we still do play all sorts of sports. We're never talking about hockey at home, rarely do we talk about it. We're pretty good as a family at staying away from that."
Add it all up and it seems like just about the perfect upbringing for an elite prospect who, at the same time, is also wellgrounded and ready to roll with whatever the hockey world has to throw at him. Sam's not shy, in fact, of proclaiming himself ready to take his game to the highest stage. It's what he wants most, and he wants it soon.
"The biggest focus is obviously going to be my ultimate goal of playing in the National Hockey League next year," he said. "You've got to definitely be level-headed throughout the whole year and keep improving and really push yourself to be able to play there when that time comes next year."
Fellow West Vancouverite and Hollyburn alum Morgan Rielly is also eligible to play for Canada at the world juniors but is currently playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The NHL club may still release him for the tournament but early indications are that they'll keep the rookie in the big show.
Leafs general manager Dave Nonis told the National Post Wednesday that "it's unlikely, but it's not impossible," that the Leafs will release Rielly for the tournament. "In the event that he's not playing regularly, or there's a change in our roster. .. I wouldn't say that he's off the table. But I wouldn't say it's likely."
Heading into this weekend the rookie has put up nine points, all assists, and a -11 rating in 22 games with the Leafs.
