Fresh from a solid season with the U18 AAA Lloydminster Lancers, graduating defenceman Ryder Naim has signed with his hometown Bonnyville Pontiacs of the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL).
Read more: Pro prospect Leslie’s junior rights traded to Kelowna
The junior A Pontiacs made the announcement Friday, May 30, marking a homecoming of sorts for Naim, who played two years in OHA Edmonton’s prep system before spending the past season with Lloydminster.
“Oh, it feels great,” said Naim, 17, after signing with the team he watched as a child.
“It’s a bit relieving, in a way, that I’m heading back home. But it’s also motivation for me to keep getting better and working toward the ultimate goal of making it to, somewhere, the next step.”
Within a few years, the fleet-footed Naim hopes to eventually advance to university hockey, whether that’s NCAA in the U.S., or U Sports in Canada.
It’s the path he charted when he left home three years ago and spent two seasons in Edmonton playing with OHA in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League.
“I’ve been planning on doing a more academic route toward my hockey career,” said the Grade 12 student, who transferred to Bonnyville Centralized High School after spending much of his senior year at Lloydminster Comprehensive.
“Going either NCAA or U Sports, somewhere I could get my schooling, as well as pursue my hockey career.”
Coming from a business-oriented family, he envisions jumping into business studies at some point. For now, he’ll man the Pontiacs’ point in AJHL rinks.
SMOOTH SKATER
One of Naim’s greatest strengths is his skating ability, so it’s fitting he models his game after fellow defencemen Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche and Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks.
“I’m a puck-moving, offensive defenceman,” said the five-foot-11 and 178 pound Naim.
“Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar have been my idols, because of their edges and the way they move around the ice. I think my skating is personally my strength. I like to manoeuvre myself in ways other people can’t really read, so I can get myself out of trouble that way.”
Even when the last-place Lancers went through troubling times in the Alberta Elite Hockey League last winter, Naim used those instances as a learning experience.
“I had to pick and choose my battles, rather than just taking a wild guess and hoping it would work out,” he said. “So, it made me smarter in that way.”
Naim scored four goals and 11 points in 36 games with Lloyd. After the Lancers’ U18 regular season ended, he added three goals and four points in eight playoff games with the junior B St. Paul Canadiens, who lost in the Northeast Alberta league semifinals to the eventual-champion Wainwright Bisons.
“It was a good experience, for sure,” he said. “I got to play more than I thought I would, honestly.”
Just as Bonnyville management cited in signing Naim, former teammates say his dynamic skating stands out.
“He’s quick, shifty and very offensive,” said Lancers forward Logan Flewell. “I definitely think he has the skill (to play junior A).”
Naim has a hometown role model in former Pontiacs defenceman A.J. Macaulay, now an NCAA Division 1 veteran who’s working out at the same Bonnyville training facility as Naim this summer.
“It’s a relatively new gym, but people from the AJHL and NCAA come work out for a couple of hours, three or four times a week,” Naim said of Immortal Strength sports-performance centre.
“I’ve looked up to A.J. since he played back in Bonnyville, so it was pretty cool to start working out with him throughout the summer.”
Naim credits his former summer sport —soccer — for his exceptional skating ability. He played soccer with Bonnyville teams for about 10 years.
“It definitely helped me both conditioning-wise and footwork-wise, just because you had to be co-ordinated,” said Naim, who watched his younger brother Hunter’s soccer team last weekend during a Camrose tournament.
TEAM LEBANON TOUR
Oldest sibling Emma, a MacEwan University student in Edmonton, was playing with Team Lebanon this spring in an international women’s cultural hockey championship at New Jersey.
Ryder Naim had similar hockey experiences last summer in the World Challenger Series, as part of the men’s Team Lebanon for tournaments in Toronto, Chicago and New York.
“Teams like Jamaica and Puerto Rico brought some real good players, like NCAA and junior A,” he said. “Jamaica even brought a guy from the NHL for the last one.”
Naim has Lebanese heritage on both of his parents’ sides. He has visited Lebanon four or five times.
In Canada and beyond, Naim has seen hockey become more diverse.
“More than when I was younger, in previous years, I’m starting to see more Lebanese heritage people around the hockey world, at least,” he said. “Not necessarily in my league, but we’re starting to get recognition.”
Naim’s natural athleticism was evident again this spring as he represented Bonnyville in Alberta high school track-and-field competitions. At the district meet, he won the senior boys’ triple jump and placed second in the 100 metres. He wrapped up his track season with a fourth-place finish in the triple jump at the zone meet last week at home.
Read more: U18 AAA Lancers split weekend
