The Sheet with Jeff Marek
Beyond the Crest: Jack Pridham on His Unconventional Path, Leafs Ties & Blackhawks Future
05 May 2026
Chapter 1: How did Jack Pridham's upbringing influence his hockey career?
Jack Pridham, born into hockey. His father, Brandon Pridham, longtime assistant general manager of the Maple Leafs, worked with the NHL as well. Jack Pridham is the quintessential 24-7 hockey kid. He's all about it. Also won the Overager of the Year Award in the Ontario Hockey League. He's destined for big things with the Chicago Blackhawks, who drafted him back in 2024.
Here's my conversation with Jack Pridham of the Kitchener Rangers in the Rangers dressing room at The Odd. Jack, first of all, thanks so much for doing this. You know, I've been coming to this building for decades. You know, when I was at university in the early 90s, come here to see the Kitchen Rangers, Joe McDonnell's team. He was the coach then. So I'm very familiar with the building.
But then I come in here to the room. And I see the weight room and it's all new and it's first class. It's just like heritage organization, old building and this like gorgeous dressing room. Kind of good for your last year in the OHL.
Yeah, it's awesome. You know, definitely very fortunate and very lucky to have the facilities that we do and experience it.
Yeah, what's the sort of vibe around the team about all the renovations here?
Yeah, kind of like I said, we're so lucky to kind of be able to have this and experience it.
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Chapter 2: What was Jack Pridham's journey through junior hockey like?
And not only my last year or two, but for the younger guys kind of, you know, who are going to kind of walk through the next few years and definitely excited.
There's a lot to get to with you. You know, your path to where you're at right now, the Chicago Blackhawks drafting you as well. I do want to get a couple of things about your dad, who's the AGM of the Toronto Maple Leafs and a salary cap expert. But tell us about your path. I mean, Stouffville guy, small town, Ontario. How did you get to here?
Yeah, so definitely been not a traditional path, I would say, for a lot of hockey players. You know, going back to the pandemic kind of was when I was supposed to play for York Simcoe Express. That would have been our OHL draft year. But obviously that didn't happen given the situation. So after that, I was fortunate enough to go to St.
Andrews College for two years, grade 11 and 12, play on the varsity team there with, you know, very, very skilled players and a great group there.
Dean Letourneau would have been, was he on your line there?
Yeah, he was on my line there. Um, Jonathan Castagna, who was recently traded to Calgary. He was, we played together as well too. Uh, Francesco Delalce, who's at UMass now, uh, Colorado pick. He was there as well too. So we had, we had a great team. It was a great, great place to, you know, not only kind of develop on the ice, but off the ice too with, with great academics.
Dave Manning has a lot to do with that. You have a thought on Dave?
He's a great, he's, he's great. He's, uh, he's been awesome. Um, ever since day one there, he's, um, you know, kind of, kind of runs the ship there. And, um, it's, it's been a great, it's been a great program.
Yeah. I mentioned Letourneau a couple of seconds ago, first round traffic, um, Boston Bruins playing at Boston college. What was your relationship like with him? I mean, I've talked to Dave about you and him before and how much you helped him along the way. Um, first of all, he's massive.
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Chapter 3: How does Jack Pridham describe his experience at St. Andrew’s College?
He's a beast. He's a big boy. But no, we spent a lot of time together. We actually live in the same house on campus there, Sifton House. We would go on the ice together during our spares, just hanging out. kind of just always be around each other and be together and you know he's having tremendous success at Boston College so he's a great player.
At what point was um did you look at hockey and say this is more than maybe just a hobby for me that this could actually be something that I could take a take a road down to to maybe make it to the NHL?
Yeah I think you know growing up every kid's kind of got in the back of their head that's kind of what they want to do and stuff but it's obviously so hard to, to make it. And there's a bunch of great players out there. So I think just kind of just being focused all kind of throughout my career growing up and St. Andrews.
And then after that went to West Kelowna and then eventually to Kitchener, kind of just kind of keeping the same, same focus and kind of staying level-headed is kind of, you know, brought me success today.
What was that transition like from West Kelowna to Kitchener?
It was great, great transition. Obviously, you know, the rule change that happened, I was able to come here and, Um, West Cologne was great. It was great to experience kind of, you know, living away from home out there and playing in the BCHL. And, uh, when the rule change happened, it was something I wanted to do just, you know, kind of play against, um, older and, um, players and stuff.
So, uh, be able to come here. It was, it was great.
What have you found about the OHL in the couple of seasons that you've played here as far as, you know, tendencies, what it's like? I mean, all leagues evolve, players evolve, etc.
How would you describe the OHL right now? It's a great league. There's a lot of great players out there, a lot of great teams. It's, you know, very exciting to be in a spot like Kitchener and kind of have the staff we have from starting up Joe Birch, Mike McKenzie, all our coaching staff. You know, they truly care for their players, which is great to see.
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Chapter 4: What impact did the COVID-19 pandemic have on Jack Pridham's career?
I was talking to Mike McKenzie, your general manager, uh, rare to see European coaches, uh, come to, to junior hockey or really even come overseas to North America to begin with. Um, and he's a different kind of thinker as well. We've all heard him talk about positionless hockey, et cetera. What's he meant to you? Like, what have you picked up from, from UCL hocus?
He's been, he's been a lot to me. Um, you know, he's always kind of honest on like the little details. I think those are, has been really important to our team and our team success. On my first day last year here, after team practice, we sat down for a good 30 minutes together and just going over kind of the structure and how he wants his players to play. So he's been great for me.
How does he want his players to play? How does he want you to play?
Yeah, he wants us to play hard, structured game, not hoping plays, just making the hard and right play.
Your shot is elite. That's one of the calling cards for Jack Pridham. Has that always been in your golf bag or is that something you've had to work on for a long time?
Yeah, I think just I've always worked on it growing up. I'm continuing to work on it every day. You know, when I was younger, we had kind of an unfinished basement. So my dad actually painted all the lines in our basement, the big circle in the middle, blue line, red line, two nets on each end. So be down there with him on the rollerblades, just shooting pucks as well as my sister.
So it's, uh, you know, definitely something we've worked at.
You know, I mentioned off the top, you know, your father, Brandon Pridham, assistant general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I would always hear the stories about your dad when he worked at the NHL having to, for lack of a better term, babysit some general managers and sort of hold their hand through how the… The salary cap works. Your father's one of the smartest people in the NHL.
What was it like growing up with him as a dad? He played when he played in Stouffville.
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Chapter 5: How does Jack Pridham feel about his transition to the OHL?
That team won the Quebec Peewee Championships. I'm sure you've heard those stories a million times over the dinner table. But what was it like growing up the son of Brandon Pridham?
It was great. Definitely a huge honor to call him my dad. He's been not only a mentor to me, but to my sister as well, too. I think from a young age, he's always been kind of a parent that he's just going to be honest with us, kind of honest with how we stand in hockey as well, too, and just wanted nothing but the best for us.
So are you the guy that everyone comes to for salary cap advice? You think your dad's the smartest guy with a salary cap. It's going to rub off on Jack.
Yeah. Yeah, I get told nothing. So he's a vault.
I get told nothing. How much of a, I mean, everyone's a hockey fan, but like there's like sort of varying degrees too. Are you someone that was sort of always glued to the television watching hockey, like hockey 24-7? Was that always your jam?
Yeah, that was always my channel. Just always watching kind of the Leafs growing up too, you know, with obviously him being a part of it as well. Definitely got to experience some cool events and stuff out of that. But yeah, just always kind of been a hockey nerd. Favorite players for the hockey nerd, who would they be? Favorite player growing up was Ovechkin.
I was actually number eight growing up, kind of all the way throughout. Because of him? Because of him, yeah. Just loved the way he could shoot the puck.
Tongues out, yellow laces, whole deal, all that, tinted visors.
Yeah, I loved the way he could score goals and shoot the puck. So always kind of rocked number eight.
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Chapter 6: What coaching style does Jussi Ahokas bring to the Kitchener Rangers?
He'll just shoot anything, rolling pucks, flat pucks, hard passes. So that's kind of something I like to put towards my game.
Is that the philosophy? There's no bad shot? There's no bad shot. Get pucks on that. He's a fascinating guy. When it comes to your game, and I know as we're recording this, tomorrow you're opening up against Saginaw in the OHL playoffs. Um, I am curious, like at what points you're drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks, how far ahead do you allow yourself to look?
Are you one day at a time, but I'll allow myself to look like a month from now or a year from now or two years from now. Like how often do you allow yourself to think what's, what's further than the next game?
Yeah. I think you just said it best, just kind of just one day at a time. I think that's kind of a lesson learned. You know, not a lesson, just something my dad's always kind of said to my sister and I growing up too. It's just one day at a time. That's kind of all you can do in this business is, you know, you don't know necessarily what the next day will bring.
Just kind of focus on kind of where you are right now and where your feet are. Just do it to the best of your ability.
Your buddies within another, I mean, I think like Merrick Van Acker, for one, there's a lot of, you know, Spellacy and Windsor. Like there's players that have been drafted by the Blackhawks. They've taken a lot. from the Ontario hockey league. I don't know, maybe bond is too strong a word, but is there something amongst Hawks prospects in this league?
Yeah, for sure. They're, you know, they're friendly guys, good guys, you know, definitely got to create some good friendships down at development camps and kind of main camps with them. But when we play against each other, just focused obviously on, on our team and want to win. So.
What do you want people to know about you? When they think Jack Pridham, what do you want them to think or say?
I think just someone that's going to do everything they can for their team to win. I want to win and I want to be a winner.
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Chapter 7: What is Jack Pridham's scoring mentality and inspiration from Ovechkin?
So we'll go there and then I'll go home. have a nap at, at two to three 14 kind of, it's always three, four, three, four, three 14. Yeah. You're that guy. Yeah. That guy to the, yeah. Set time. I'll go in the shower, get dressed, always wear my suit during my pregame meal. It's a weird, weird superstition. I don't know. I've always done it. Where did that start? I don't know.
I don't know to be honest, but yeah, always wear my suit pregame meal, two chicken parms and pasta with olive oil, no sauce. And then come to the rink and take my stick in the room before 5 o'clock, the meeting, and then set to go.
Okay, so what about when you go home?
After the game?
No, when do you go home? In the off-season. Oh, in the off-season?
Like, you're home.
Is it like, okay, 2 to 3, 14, mom, I'm napping, and no?
No, none of that.
Can you get dressed up for dinner? Suit and tie for dinner?
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Chapter 8: How does Jack Pridham view his future with the Chicago Blackhawks?
Well, he'll play near Lake Michigan, but the Blackhawk prospect puts on a highlight real goal, one you'll be seeing for ages, his second of the game and best of his OHL career.
Is that the only one you've scored? Yes, it is. And what did you think at that moment? Do you think, like, I'm going for it? Like, what's the thinking behind it?
It was pretty crazy. I remember, you know, I got a puck down low from Swickie behind the net and had a little bit of space. I was like, I'm trying it. Like I'm, I'm going for it. I'm trying it. So got it up. And I was like, Oh my God, like it's in, I didn't even, I didn't even know it was in at first. Like it was like a delay, delayed reaction. Yeah.
Like back in the celebration, but just heard like the rink, just a rough. And I was like,
that just happened like that just went in so it was pretty cool to see but definitely you know my teammates get me the pot credits to them what did the bench do and what did your coach say once upon a time like yeah the bench was like everyone was in shock like kind of like is that even real like what just happened but yeah the coaches were definitely excited it was obviously more important to get the win so it was it was definitely special said like a pro more important to get the win
Thanks so much for this.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
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