HOCKEY PREVIEW 2006-07: The Man With a Plan

Although the hearts of Pittsburgh hockey fans rise and fall with the successes and failures of NHL phenom Sidney Crosby, another Steel City product has been making his mark on the ice.

Upper Saint Clair High graduate Dylan Reese is one of the top young players in the nation and the undisputed leader of his team. Combining a potent penchant for guarding the blue line with an ebullient personality, the 111th captain of Harvard hockey seems to be the perfect player to wear the ‘C’ on his sweater.

“He’s a natural leader,” classmate Kevin Du says. “In the dressing room and on the ice, guys just naturally look up to him.”

When Reese was voted captain in the spring, the selection came as no surprise. Ever since his sophomore year, the defenseman had drawn comparisons to former Crimson skipper Noah Welch ’05. Both blueliners presented a dual threat to opponents, blending a knack for scoring with a willingness to go nose-to-nose with top-line forwards.

But most importantly, like Welch, Reese skated with poise and self-assurance, something not lost on his former road-trip roommate.

“Dylan’s got a lot of confidence,” noted Welch at the end of Reese’s sophomore season. “He’s not a cocky kid, but he’s a pretty confident kid, and he’s a leader. In those qualities, I thought I saw a lot of myself this year.”

Others made similar observations.

Even before Reese reached Cambridge, the New York Rangers recognized his intelligence and competitive nature and nabbed him in the seventh round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.

After spending just one season with Reese, Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 extolled his attitude and work ethic, explaining that the blueliner plays “with a little boy’s enthusiasm, and he plays with a willingness to go into the lion’s den a little bit.”

“That’s a characteristic most great players have,” Donato added.

Even Reese himself had an idea of what was to come, remarking that he would “would love to be the captain of Harvard hockey sometime.”

Fast-forward to the spring of 2006, when Reese’s teammates saw the same qualities in him that Welch, Donato, and the Rangers had and chose him as their captain.

Maybe it wasn’t fate, but it certainly wasn’t plain luck, either.

“I’ve been touting him from day one,” Donato says. “I think he’s a Hobey Baker candidate, [and] he has a chance to be the player of the year for us in the league. He has that type of talent and that type of character.”

Over the years, Reese has proven that he’s deserving of the praise.

The defenseman played for the Pittsburgh Forge for two seasons, helping the squad to NAHL and national titles in the summer of 2003 and earning honors as the league’s top defenseman. He also succeeded at the international level, winning the Four Nations Cup with the U.S. Under-17 team in 2000 and earning a spot on the U.S. World Junior Team in 2003.

And that was all before he came to Harvard.

After an injury-ridden rookie year, Reese had a breakout season as a sophomore, playing all 34 games and leading Crimson blueliners in goals.

He tied for the team lead in goals again last year, his junior season, including five crucial points against Dartmouth and Cornell in Harvard’s run to the ECAC tournament title and the resulting No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. Reese’s efforts earned him first team All-Ivy honors, second team All-ECAC honors, and a spot on the ECAC All-Tournament team.

No one in the league is expecting him to disappoint this year, either, as indicated by the captain’s selection to the media’s preseason All-ECAC team.

But Reese isn’t ready to rest on his laurels. Despite all of the individual achievements, he still wants the one thing that no skater on the current Crimson roster has experienced—a victory in the NCAA tournament.

“That’s the hump that this program needs to get over, to make the next step, to become a national powerhouse,” Reese says. “It’s something that I pride myself in as a captain, winning an NCAA game.”

Though it wasn’t apparent to him when he was first elected, Reese now recognizes the added responsibility. Even before the team began its season, the captain had spent a lot of time pondering the various issues that will confront him throughout the year.

Welch has served as a useful source of advice, providing Reese with the kind of insightful guidance that can only come from a former captain.

“I’ve talked to him a lot about being captain,” Reese says. “One of the things he thought he did too much of [was try] to play outside his bounds, just [do] too much on the ice—and that’s why I want to make sure I keep things simple.”

The part of his captaincy that Reese deems will be most important—and most demanding—is maintaining close, open relationships with all of his teammates. Although he has already established a good rapport with his classmates and many of the younger players as well, he recognizes that his status as captain might affect the way other players approach him.

“It’s hard sometimes to listen to someone when you’re close friends with them and you feel like maybe they’re wrong in situations,” Reese explains. “That’s what I wanted to stress to the guys that I’ve played with for a couple of years: if you feel like I’m doing something wrong, come up to me, let’s talk about it.”

Nevertheless, more than anything else, Reese’s coaches and players are expecting him to lead on the ice. When an opposing forward is on a hot streak, when Harvard is killing off a 5-on-3 power play, or when the Crimson has a man-advantage opportunity of its own, Harvard will look to Reese to show the way.

In short, the Crimson needs Reese to be a complete player and an inspirational leader, all in one. Especially for a team that has started the season 0-3, his influence is all the more important. And if the past is any indication, the captain is ready for the challenge.

“At the end of the day, I expect that Dylan will lead by example, and that’s the best way to do it,” Donato says. “He’s a guy that really can do it all, and we’re going to ask him to pretty much do it all this year.”

—Staff writer Karan Lodha can be reached at klodha@fas.harvard.edu.