Nicol thrives with U18 Wheat Kings

Just when you may think playing against competition three years older than you may be too much of an ask, Reid Nicol steps in to prove otherwise.

The 15-year-old on Brandon’s U18 AAA squad continues to prove time and time again that if you give him an inch, he’ll take a mile with ease — no matter how many years the opposition has on him or thinks they have.

Nicol, a six-foot-two, 185-pound centre, began his tear in U18 in his freshman season last year, when he was allowed to age advance from the U15 level a year early after coming off a league championship title during the 2023-24 season, where he racked up 36 goals and 44 assists for 80 points in just 32 games played.

In what should have been an overwhelmingly fast and physical game for a 14-year-old coming up to play at the U18 level, Nicol adjusted faster than the speed of light, notching 35 goals and 58 points in 48 games played during the regular season while also adding eight goals and six assists during the post-season to help his team reach the Manitoba U18 AAA final — where the Wheaties ultimately fell to the Winnipeg Wild in a sweep.

Though his team came up just short, Nicol is well aware that was the biggest season of his career so far in terms of development.

“It’s definitely helped me. I was really glad I was allowed to age advance last year, and I had to really adapt to the physicality and how much faster guys are being three years older than me now,” Nicol said on Thursday. “You just have to get used to making those plays a lot quicker and be ready to take a hit to make a play. With all these bigger guys that are stronger and faster, I just need to be doing things quicker and things, but my team really helped me out and was a big part of my success.”

Nicol’s elite play for his age last season put all junior scouts on notice, including the Western Hockey League’s Everett Silvertips, who ended up drafting the Brandonite with the fifth-overall pick in the 2025 WHL Prospects Draft last spring. The club then signed him a few weeks later to a WHL scholarship and development contract.

It was all just a whirlwind of emotion for him.

“It was a surreal feeling. I just got back to my grandma’s house with my mom, auntie, and my grandma, and just turned on the draft, and then I got a call from my agent just before Everett had their pick telling me that’s where I was going to go, and it was a great feeling,” he said. “Everett, it’s far away, but they’re a great team. Really good coaching staff and a really good team overall.

“I didn’t really know what to think back then, but I never thought I’d make it this far when I was growing up, to be honest. I’m just incredibly thankful to be a part of it.”

After losing in heartbreaking fashion to the Wild in the final and then being drafted to Everett, Nicol’s never had more motivation to come out and have another season to remember. And so far, it appears to be exactly that.

Through 11 games played, Nicol is averaging 2.45 points per game and leads Brandon’s forward group in scoring with 18 goals and 9 assists for 27 points. Only defenceman Easten Turko has more points, with 32.

Nicol’s coming off a strong four-point performance (2G, 2A) against the Pembina Valley Hawks at J&G Homes Arena on Wednesday night, when the Wheat Kings downed them by an 8-1 landslide. Brandon, who now sits third overall in the standings with a 14-6-1 record — only trailing the Winnipeg Wild and Thrashers — will look to win their fourth straight contest when they face the Interlake Lightning at home on Saturday night, which will be the last game of the month.

Nicol’s been impressed with his team’s effort so far but still believes they can still smoothen out their consistency.

“The team’s been doing really good. We’ve been getting constantly better every game, and there’s been a couple slip-ups, but we’ve been improving every game we can,” Nicol said. “Obviously, we need to keep our consistency even because there’s been a couple ups and downs so far during the season, but with a good game recently, we just need to build off the wins and learn from our losses and keep moving forward.”

A big piece of the puzzle will be continuing to hone the chemistry of Nicol’s line alongside Jaxson Brick and Cole Dupuis, who have a tad bit of history playing together last year.

“They’re both really fast, and they’re really smart,” said Nicol of his linemates. “They can make the plays and get me the puck, and I can give them the puck, so we just work really well in the O-zone together, and we’re making a ton of plays and getting great opportunities to score, so hopefully we can keep it up.”

Given his play up until now, other teams without a doubt have a target on Nicol’s back and will not hesitate to double or even triple-team him when he’s got the puck, so he needs to be prepared to find his teammates and find those open pockets when nothing else is available. But, if Nicol has a chance to shoot, more often than not it’s going in the back of the net.

“A lot of my goals are scored from my shot because I like to shoot the puck a lot, and I’m shooting it mostly from, well, any side, really. I feel like I’m picking the corners, the low glove or high blocker, things like that. That’s how I score my goals.”

That wicked, yet unpredictable release seems to run in the family, as Nicol’s younger brother, Kale, also clearly doesn’t have a problem hitting the back of the net, as the 13-year-old has now eclipsed 37 goals and 64 points in only 12 games.

Nicol likes to see it as brotherly competition.

“He’s had an insane start to this season, and we’ve obviously pushed each other a lot in our training and everything,” he said. “A lot of the things we do are a competition, so we can see who does it better, and he’s always right behind me, if not the same or better than me at certain things, and that’s what pushes me. I don’t want him to beat me, so he pushes me to be better, and then that pushes him to catch up because he obviously wants to beat me in certain things.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com