Good things come to those who wait.
Ben Hrebik has lived by the old cliché the last couple of seasons, and that patience and perseverance are starting to pay off.
“I knew my time would come, but I was just patient,” said the Barrie Colts goaltender who has put himself on this weekend’s NHL Draft radar after an outstanding first OHL season where he posted a 21-9-2 record and 2.87 goals against average to go along with a sparkling .920 save percentage that tied him with Kitchener’s Jackson Parsons for second best among all goaltenders behind only London’s Austin Elliot.
After getting into just two games the previous season and pencilled in to fill the backup role behind veteran starter Sam Hillebrandt, the Milton native quickly made a name for himself and was soon sharing the Barrie crease with Hillebrandt.
Hrebik would start 34 of the team’s 68 games and he used that size and patience to show he had what it took to be a starter, especially during the holiday season when he carried the load while Hillebrandt was away at the world junior hockey championships with the U.S. team.
“I’m a super hard worker,” the six-foot-three, 199-pound netminder said of the reason for his success. “If I got my time to shine, I just felt it would all work out in the end.”
“I think it’s just a confidence thing,” he added. “I just know if I get my shot, I know I’m going to succeed. It’s all the work I put into it.”
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NHL scouts certainly took notice. It’s expected the 19-year-old will be selected on the second day of the 2025 NHL Entry Draft.
“Guys are coming into the building to watch top prospect Kashawn Aitcheson, and you play well, that’s how you get noticed,” an NHL Eastern Conference scout said of Hrebik drawing attention. “I’m sure that’s how he originally got on the NHL radar, and to his credit, he’s performed and played well.
“That’s why he’s put himself at least in the conversation of a team that might want to lock him up and get some years if he keeps developing at this rate.”
Goaltenders, explained the scout, develop at different stages, different rates than players. Perhaps a bit unfair, added the scout, that goalies have that one age across the board to be drafted.
Hrebik, a ninth-round pick of the Colts in the 2022 OHL Priority Selection, was a virtual unknown coming into last season,
“He’s a case of a bigger guy that it has taken a little time to get the opportunity or work himself into playing major junior, and when he did, he performed really well,” said the NHL scout. “He really has some physical tools and raw abilities that goaltending coaches can work with at the next level.
“With goalies, you don’t want to say size is a limiting factor, but to a certain extent, when goalies are big, it helps the averages and helps them play the game at the next level, so he’s a perfect case of that.”
The 19-year-old admits he’s thrilled about this weekend, but knows it’s just the first step.
“It’s a huge accomplishment,” Hrebik, who will watch the draft from home with friends and family, says of climbing to as high as 10th overall in the NHL Central Scouting’s North American Goalie mid-term rankings. “I feel pretty confident going in.
“I’ve talked to a good number of teams that said some good things, so it’s really exciting to just count down the days.”
Former Colts head coach and now club Vice President and General Manager Marty Williamson believes there’s a lot more to come with Hrebik’s game.
“He was a pretty raw goaltender, and (scouts) loved coming to watch him,” said Williamson, who trusted his first-year goalie with seven playoff games. “They love his calmness. We believe, like the NHL (scouts), there’s room for improvement. He’s not maxed out.
“He’s a big man, and he checks a lot of boxes. He’s going to get drafted and be on that path of trying to start a pro career after junior.”
A Toronto Maple Leafs fan growing up, Hrebik said he tried to pattern his style to that of Montreal Canadiens’ star Carey Price.
As he got older, he tried to emulate the styles of former Toronto goalie Freddy Anderson and fellow Swede and current Ottawa Senators star Linus Ullmark.
“Linus Ullmark is just super calm. Good reactions,” Hrebik said. “Andersen is just really athletic, and I’ve always watched him since Toronto.”
There’s that patience again.
“I think I’ve always been a calm goalie,” said Hrebik. “I’m not too reactive to other players saying stuff or people getting in my head. I’m sort of just in my own world, doing my own thing.”
Hrebik credits Colts’ goalie coach David Belitski for his guidance over the last two seasons with Barrie. He also said a big part of his development was the friendly competition he had with Hillebrandt for starts.
While they battled for the crease, they always supported one another.
“We were always great friends, Hrebik said of Hillebrandt. “We were always competing because we have the same end goal of making the NHL one day, so we were always just competing to make each other better.
“But we were great friends off the ice as well.”
The Eastern Conference scout told Barrie 360 he believes Hrebik will go anywhere from the middle to later rounds this weekend. Later is hardly a bad thing for a goalie like Hrebik whose game should only get better with more development.
“(New York Rangers star goaltender) Igor Shesterkin was a later pick,” said the NHL scout. “There’s going to be a run of the top goaltenders in the draft, it always happens, but I think he has the elements and the qualities of a guy that will go a little later.
“But, at the end of the day, he might outperform some of the guys that go before him.”
The NHL draft begins this Friday night (June 27) with the first round starting at 7 p.m. at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles. Rounds 2 through 7 will be held on Saturday (June 28) beginning at 12 p.m.
