Carolina Hurricanes: Jamieson Rees Prospect Profile

Career to Date

Rees, a native of Hamilton, Ontario, began to turn heads in the widely-renowned Greater Toronto Hockey League, one of the largest youth hockey pipelines of future-NHL talent on the planet (seriously, the GTHL’s alumni list is pages long of current and former NHL players). Playing for the Mississauga Reps U16 AAA squad, Rees led his team with an impressive 24 goals and 40 points in 32 games in 2016-17. He then tacked on six goals and five assists in 11 OHL Cup games with the club.

This was enough to get him drafted ninth overall in the 2017 OHL Priority Selection by the Sarnia Sting – and, incidentally, two of the players drafted ahead of him are still his organization-mates in Ryan Suzuki (first overall, Barrie) and Blake Murray (seventh overall, Sudbury).

Rees would get his first taste of OHL hockey the following season (2017-18), coming onto the scene with a rock-solid age-16 season, netting five goals and 20 points in 46 games, largely in a depth role. He also played for the Canada Black squad at the 2017 WHC U17s, where he had a goal and four points in five tournament games.

Big things were expected from Rees in the OHL ahead of the 2018-19 season, especially with his first year of NHL Entry Draft eligibility the ensuing June. Unfortunately, his season ended up being a bit of a disappointment. Rees plays an extremely physical, in-your-face style that caused him to miss over 30 games due to injury (a lacerated kidney kept him out of the Sarnia lineup for about two months) and suspension (a high hit earned him an eight-game suspension). When he was on the ice he was inconsistent, spending much of the year trying to get his feet under him, and finished with just 32 points (10 goals, 22 assists) in 37 games.

Despite the tough regular season, Rees was afforded a chance to make up for lost time playing for Team Canada at the U18 World Championships; he did not disappoint. He finished fourth in scoring on a stacked roster (12 players on the team were first-round picks) with two goals and eight points in seven games and showed he was not out of place amongst elite prospects. The tournament definitely propelled him up some teams’ draft boards, and most ranking services had him anywhere from the late first round to early in the third.

The Carolina Hurricanes believed in his game enough to take him in the 2nd round, 44th overall.

This brings us to last season – the breakout where things finally seemed to come together at the major junior level. Rees was named Sarnia’s alternate captain before the season started, and came out absolutely on fire. Although he again dealt with suspensions and a minor injury that caused him to miss 23 games, Rees was one of the deadliest players in the OHL, scoring 18 times and adding 43 assists in 39 games played. The 1.56 points-per-game clip was the 11th-best rate in the OHL.

And, finally, Rees was one of the last cuts from Team Canada’s U20 World Juniors roster, despite notably sticking out in the pre-tournament exhibitions and practices.