The dust is slowly settling for Kevin Reidler at the end of a very busy week, capped off by his first career game as a professional goaltender.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old Swedish athlete was in net for the Belleville Senators on Wednesday during a 3-0 loss to the Utica Comets.<\/p>\n
Although he was surprised to find himself in net \u2014 since he was informed of the decision shortly before the game \u2014 Reidler didn\u2019t seem too rattled. He still managed to stop 26 shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was asked to play right before the game, but I still felt ready. I\u2019d been preparing for it since the start of the week,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce the surprise wore off, I was mostly excited and happy. I was able to mentally prepare myself for this game. Looking back, even though we didn\u2019t win, I had a lot of fun during the game. It\u2019s something I\u2019ll carry with me into my summer training program.\u201d “<\/p>\n
Reidler was a fifth-round pick (151st\u00a0overall) in the 2022 NHL Draft. A rather imposing figure at six feet six inches, he had just completed a developmental season with the hockey division of the AIK multi-sport club in Sweden.<\/p>\n
From that point on, he began dreaming of a future on North American ice.<\/p>\n
Reidler spent the 2023\u201324 season in the USHL with the Dubuque Fighting Saints. He made the jump to the NCAA the following fall, joining the University of Nebraska at Omaha. After a quiet season, he took advantage of the transfer window to join the Penn State Nittany Lions. Over the past few months, he has played alongside Gavin McKenna, a top prospect for the 2026 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could have taken my time. I had two years of eligibility left in college,\u201d he explains. \u201cI\u2019ve known for a long time that I would never pass up an opportunity to sign a contract with a great organization like the Senators, if that opportunity arose.\u201d<\/p>\n
The opportunity did indeed present itself at the end of the season. Reidler signed a two-year contract, which will take effect at the start of the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe three years that have passed since I left Sweden have helped me prepare for this opportunity. I was able to get used to playing on the smaller rinks in North America. In the junior ranks, I played a lot of games. In college, I was able to work more on my development, both physically and mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starting next fall, Reidler will put all of that into practice, whether he ends up in Belleville or elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Seizing the Moment<\/p>\n
Reidler seems a bit embarrassed to mention Henrik Lundqvist when asked to talk about the people who have inspired him along the way. \u201cI know\u2026 It\u2019s the obvious answer for a goalie from Sweden,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He then cites another great goalie from his home country, Jacob Markstrom. \u201cHe\u2019s from the same town as me,\u201d he says. \u201cI saw him play in my hometown before he left to start his NHL career. We\u2019re built the same way. I try to play a style similar to his.\u201d<\/p>\n
Markstrom is expected to reach the 600-game career milestone next season, which is no small feat. Across the entire NHL, only 55 goalies have reached that milestone so far.<\/p>\n
Reidler still wants it to be known that his admiration for Lundqvist, \u201cthe King,\u201d is no accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve met him a few times at his summer hockey camp,\u201d he insists. \u201cBefore the 2024 World Junior Hockey Championship, I even had the chance to chat with him to get to know him better. That year, the tournament was held in Gothenburg, where he\u2019d spent a few years early in his career. So he was back in town to support Sweden\u2019s goalies. That\u2019s when I was able to ask him a few questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then?<\/p>\n
\u201cFor him, it\u2019s crucial to have fun, and to have fun, you have to know how to enjoy the moment. It\u2019s easy for a goalie to get distracted by thinking about too many things. It\u2019s important to have fun and enjoy the moment. That\u2019s very helpful for a goalie. And it\u2019s something that was on my mind during my first game with Belleville.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reidler has always had a soft spot for the Sedin twins, Daniel and Henrik, even though they weren\u2019t goalies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always liked the way they carry themselves in general.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The dust is slowly settling for Kevin Reidler at the end of a very busy week, capped off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[5,4,72,25,5157,73],"class_list":{"0":"post-554255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-ottawa","11":"tag-ottawa-senators","12":"tag-ottawasenators","13":"tag-senators"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116417673462893206","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}