Cole Reschny had a really busy 2024-25 season.

He tried out for the Canadian national under-18 team at the end of July and made the roster for the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. He thus spent the first chunk of August at that event, capturing a gold medal. Then he headed off to Victoria for his Western Hockey League season, which ran September through March. The Royals played two rounds in the playoffs, beating Tri-City but losing to Spokane. Reschny then opted to keep playing, heading down to Texas to join the Canadian entry at the Under-18 World Championship for the third game of that event. They ended up winning gold, too.

With his playing season done, Reschny then had to deal with the annual circus that is the NHL Draft process. He attended the Draft Combine in early June, then headed to Los Angeles for the draft itself, where he was selected by the Calgary Flames at 18th overall. After that? He hopped on a plane and headed to Calgary for his first Flames development camp. (Oh, and after development camp, the recent North Dakota commit has to start getting ready for his freshman year of college.)

Speaking to the media during the first on-ice day at Flames development camp, Reschny reflected on getting to don a Flames jersey on the ice for the first time.

“Yeah, it’s kind of setting in day by day,” said Reschny. “It’s honestly been a whirlwind. It’s so special. I mean I just getting to go to LA with my family and coming here, it’s obviously not too far from home so it’s been great.”

Reschny freely acknowledged that while getting drafted is a big personal accomplishment, he has a lot of other goals in mind that he’s committed to working toward achieving.

“I mean, getting drafted was a goal of mine my whole life and now the work only gets harder for me,” said Reschny. “I know it’s my goal to make the NHL team and make it as fast as possible and be an impact player when I do make it. So there’s a lot of work going into everything. The off-ice side of things, nutrition in the gym, the mental side of it and then on the ice obviously. The physical side of things is a big part of it. So it’s a lot of work that goes into it. There’s a lot of people supporting me. So it’s just using those resources and me putting in the effort too.”

So, will Reschny get much time off to relax during the rest of the summer? It doesn’t sound like it.

“No, I mean I got some time to spend with family and enjoy that with family and friends just before the draft,” said Reschny. “And then obviously we went to LA so that’s a pretty cool spot. We got to go to the beach for a day and now work starts. So I’m going to be going down to North Dakota for a couple weeks after this and working with them and kind of settling in there. So it’s all exciting, all good problems to have. So I can’t wait to just see what the future brings.”

While Reschny begins his freshman year at North Dakota in September, Flames fans will need to wait until the hockey season starts in October to see him in NCAA action.