Reilly Walsh started laughing when New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero told him immediately after he drafted him that his upcoming college career at Harvard was going to be the “best three years” of his life.
The reason Shero docked the right-handed shooting defenseman of a year is because a player can become an unrestricted free agent following his senior season if he stays for four years.
“I was in shock still from getting picked,” remembered Walsh, who was selected 81st overall in the 2017 National Hockey League draft. “Then I went to meet the general manager and I didn’t know what to say. Hearing that brought me back down and made me laugh, and I kept laughing as I introduced myself to the other staff members.”
The smiles continued for the Andover, N.H., native throughout his freshman season. He appeared in all 33 games and finished first among ECAC freshman blueliners in scoring with 20 points (7-13-20) en route to being named to the ECAC Hockey All-Rookie Team.
His swift ascent to the top of his class shouldn’t be a surprise.
Two weeks after hearing his name called at United Center in Chicago, Walsh attended his first development camp with the Devils seeking to take the next step toward becoming a professional. He was all ears, absorbing information from the coaching staff about the rigors of college hockey, and how he was going to have to be relentless and ready to compete whether he’s in or out of the lineup. He was told of the importance of being consistent and mature, both at and away from the rink.
And that’s just the mental aspect. Walsh also chatted with Devils player development coaches Eric Weinrich and Patrick Rissmiller about their expectations of him on the ice and in the weight room.
“Defense was something I had to work on, and we talked about the defensive mindset, that I have to defend versus getting the puck and thinking offense,” the 6-foot, 185-pounder said. “I still have ways to go with that. We also discussed my physical strength. I’ve definitely progressed there.”
It wasn’t a one-and-done meeting, either. The coaches checked in with the prospect throughout the season.
“They said positive things,” Walsh, 19, said. “We’re on the same page. I know a lot of the stuff I have to work on, but if there’s something I’m missing, they always say something, and I like that a lot. I want to do as much as I can to become a pro hockey player, and I’m excited about progressing.”
Walsh was “super excited” for his freshman campaign with the Crimson to commence, and his first couple of scrimmages remain fresh in his memory.
“I was buzzing out there, really nervous,” he said. “There were 10 ‘D’ on our team trying to crack the lineup, and one of my goals was to play every game, so I didn’t want to mess up. At the same time, you have to play with confidence. A big part of my game is being a confident player.”
The butterflies continued to flutter within Walsh when the season started. But the D-man wasn’t overwhelmed, and in the season opener against Dartmouth, he recorded his first point, an assist, in a Crimson win.
Walsh picked up another assist in the next game, a loss to bitter rival Yale. That’s not all, though. He also experienced his “welcome to college hockey” moment when he was bulldozed by Bulldogs blueliner Billy Sweezey (Hanson, Mass.), whom Walsh also opposed in prep school when he played for Proctor Academy and Sweezey was with Noble and Greenough.
“We were down by two goals and our goalie was pulled,” Walsh recounted. “I got the puck, danced in the middle, skated into the offensive zone, tried to dump it in deep, and I got absolutely killed. I was skating, looping around —guys are trying to lay the body in the ECAC — and I got smoked.”
The hit doubled as a “wakeup call” for Walsh.
“Looking back on it, I shouldn’t have been in that situation,” he noted. “You have to always keep your head up and on a swivel. I can’t dance around like that. I should’ve dumped the puck in when I got it.”
Believe it or not, Walsh is “glad it happened.”
“That was a lesson,” he stated. “And I learned it the hard way.”
The next night went much smoother for Walsh. In a Harvard victory over Brown, he tallied his first two goals. But those sunny feelings were short-lived.
Following the win, the Crimson lost on the road to Colgate and Cornell before being swept in back-to-back matches in Minnesota. However, the good news for Walsh was his rookie jitters started to dissipate in those two games against the Gophers.
“I was getting more chances and making better defensive plays,” he said.
Walsh then played what he labeled one of his “better games at the time” when the Crimson visited and tied Boston College. He felt even more comfortable in the next two contests, Harvard triumphs over Quinnipiac and Princeton in their respective barns.
“Once we got out of that slump, we were playing with more confidence,” Walsh said. “When the team is playing better, it’s much easier for guys to play better, too.”
The victories were the Crimson’s final games before the Christmas break. But while most of the team rested for the next few weeks, Walsh didn’t have nor want that luxury. He had work to do after being named to the United States preliminary roster for the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship.
Unfortunately for Walsh, his time at the mid-December training camp was the only world junior experience he would get, as he was ultimately cut from the club.
Not a man to allow that setback to bring him down, Walsh was as motivated as ever to improve his game when the college season resumed.
“When I got back from not making the world junior team,” he declared, “I had a little bit of fire in me.”
With his inner blaze burning, Walsh continued to utilize any and all pointers he received from Crimson head coach Ted Donato. A longtime left wing in the NHL, Donato, a Dedham, Mass., native, also performed on the college and international stages, playing for Harvard and on U.S. world junior, Olympic and World Championship teams.
“He knows how to get to the NHL and how to stick in the NHL, so I always take away any tips I can get from him,” Walsh said.
Walsh also was determined to improve his social life after the break. Naturally a shy person around new people, he mostly stayed within the safe haven of his hockey circle during his first few months at Harvard.
“Not making more friends at the beginning of the year was one of my regrets,” he lamented. “Also, my team doesn’t have the most social guys until we get to know them. All of us were able to turn it around and we made a lot of new friends.”
Seeing the results of being more social, particularly at college, is actually the biggest thing Walsh learned away from the rink. Of course, it took a semester for him to realize it, even though he had received some words of wisdom before the year started from his father, Mike, who played 14 NHL games as a center with the New York Islanders.
“My dad told me, ‘You’re going to Harvard. You want to make a lot of friends; make a lot of connections; make good memories,’ ” Walsh said. “It’s crazy how many friends you can make if you just say hi to guys and sit with new people in the dining hall. In my first semester, my teammates and I just hung out with the hockey guys. We already had good friends, so we didn’t feel like we needed anyone else.
“But when the second semester rolled around, we started getting closer to the lacrosse team and the football guys. Our whole team split off, too, which was good. That was a big surprise — how much more fun it is when you have different friends beyond just the hockey guys. We’re close on the ice and everything, but as much as you love them you have to get a break from talking hockey all the time.”
Speaking of a respite from discussing the sport, Walsh’s favorite class was Chinese philosophy, which he took during his first semester.
“It was a random class that some of the guys had taken before,” he said. “They said it was interesting, but I took it very seriously. It was one of my best classes. My teacher was really good, engaging, and we learned a lot about what their writings meant and what second meanings were. Decoding the Chinese philosophers’ writing styles, seeing what they believed in, comparing it to others, and analyzing all the literature was really cool.”
After spending the year undeclared, Walsh is going to declare sociology as his major.
“I took a sociology class about media and popular culture, and I really liked it,” he said. “The topics were interesting; we got to write about real stuff, such as Snapchat and all the things kids are interested in. I want to go into that a little bit more.”
Sociology narrowly beat out psychology.
“I’m more of a writer than a math guy,” Walsh asserted. “It was between those two, and I went with sociology.”
Above all, Walsh is a hockey guy poised to propel to another level. And he’s taken a hard look in the mirror ahead of his sophomore season, again focusing on upgrading every component of his mind, body and game.
“I’m still an easygoing, outgoing person with the boys, but I’ve learned how to flip the switch and go from a goofy teenage kid to, ‘It’s a game. Focus. Be a pro,’ ” he said. “But I’m still working on that and I want to take it to the next level of seriousness.”
Continued Walsh: “On the ice, defensively, I want to improve gap control and body positioning. Last year, we worked a lot on not getting beat out of the corners to the front of the net, always taking guys in, engaging with them in the corners, and staying on the ‘D’ side. I worked with (Harvard associate head coach Paul Pearl) a lot on that. That goes with physical strength, too, so I’ve been in the gym a lot, trying to work on my strength for that especially. I’m trying to be more of a physical, dominant guy, not just using my stick. I’ve always had a good stick, but I want to use both my stick and my body to be able to angle guys better. If I can grasp that, my defensive game will improve a lot.”
Walsh had a prime chance to prepare for next season in a game setting at the 2018 World Junior Summer Showcase, held in Kamloops, British Columbia, from July 28-Aug. 4. Using his experience from last year’s pre-tournament training camp with the U.S. team, he hoped to do enough during the showcase to earn another invitation to this December’s camp, and this time, a spot on the final roster.
“The team is looking for guys who can not only move the puck up and follow it up, but also be reliable on ‘D,’ ” Walsh explained. “They can’t have any liabilities on the back end, not in a tournament where you’re playing Canada, Sweden, Russia and really good teams. I wanted to show how I’ve evolved from being just an offensive defenseman to someone who can play on the power play, the penalty kill, and be on the ice for D-zone faceoffs. I’m becoming a guy who can be reliable in all situations, especially defensively, and I wanted to show that and prove to them that I’m a different player.”
Walsh already has shown that he has a sense of humor. Just ask Shero.
