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Hawks’ van Riemsdyk has a knack for putting himself in the right spot

Until last season, Trevor van Riemsdyk’s hockey career was marked by a fair amount of uncertainty.

Coming out of high school in New Jersey, the defenseman wasn’t even sure he was going to play for a Division I team, let alone reach the NHL.

Credit Chicago for setting him on the path he’s taken since, which includes a Stanley Cup ring he earned in 2014-15. After high school, van Riemsdyk opted to play in the Chicago Showcase (now called America’s Showcase), a tournament sponsored by USA Hockey designed to give players exposure to college programs.

“Going into that tournament, I didn’t really know if I was going to play Division I hockey or not, or what I would do,” van Riemsdyk said. “I came out here, we got to go to a game at Wrigley. It was a lot of fun, and obviously at the moment you don’t know where your hockey career will go from there, and it ended up leading back here.

“It’s funny to look back at that and how that tournament and this city kind of changed my hockey career, introduced me to my junior hockey coach which kind of helped show me the way to college.”

Undrafted out of the University of New Hampshire, van Riemsdyk signed an entry-level deal with the Blackhawks in March 2014. Despite suffering a fractured kneecap and then a wrist injury that required surgery his rookie year, causing him to miss 64 regular-season games and most of the playoffs, he impressed the coaches so much that he cracked the lineup for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final in 2015. Days later, he and the Hawks secured the franchise’s third title in six seasons.

The team begins its 2016-17 Cup quest Wednesday against St. Louis at the United Center.

Clearly the franchise’s braintrust, including coach Joel Quenneville, has a lot of faith in the now-25-year-old. Van Riemsdyk is a quick learner. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been one of only two Blackhawks—the other being Patrick Kane—to play in all 82 regular-season games and all seven playoff contests last season.

“I think he’s been playing the same as he’s done since game one,” said fellow defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson, who missed only one regular-season game himself in 2015-16. “He’s a great skater and good with his stick, a good modern hockey player who’s good at everything.”

Hjalmarsson once stood in van Riemsdyk’s skates. In 2009-10, he was a 22-year-old, third-year player benefiting from the experience of players like Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Brian Campbell. Now he’s got three Stanley Cups and is regarded as one of the best shutdown defensemen in the league.

Now “TVR,” as he is known in the locker room, continues to establish himself on a team that figures to be loaded at his position this season.

“He’s obviously not a cocky guy, but he plays with pretty good confidence out there,” forward Andrew Desjardins said. “He’s an unbelievable teammate; you never hear anything negative come out of his mouth. He’s a positive guy, and that’s one of the most important things in a dressing room. He’s never down. He’s always going forward.”

That’s a handy outlook to have when one of your responsibilities is throwing your body in front of slap shots. Van Riemsdyk led the Hawks in blocked shots in 2015-16 with 155, a total good enough for 22nd in the league.

“That just shows that he wants to win bad and he’s ready to do whatever it takes to get a win for the team,” said Hjalmarsson, who was second on the team with 151.

And because you no doubt were wondering, getting hit in the head is not one of van Riemsdyk’s primary concerns.

“Guys are so good that if they’re hitting you in the face, obviously that means the shot was going high over the net,” he said. “Guys usually don’t miss like that. … If you are so unlucky that it happens, obviously it’s not a lot of fun, but it’s part of the job.”

Another part of his job, from time to time, is matching up with his older brother. James van Riemsdyk, 27, is a forward with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The siblings have matched up in the NHL only once, in November 2014. James scored a goal as the Maple Leafs got the better of Trevor’s Blackhawks, 3-2.

“We’ve both been hurt so we haven’t played as many times as we could have [in the NHL], but it was definitely weird [having to hit him],” Trevor said. “I remember being matched up against him a few times that night. It’s definitely strange having him come down on you. You don’t want him to go around you or embarrass you in any way. [Laughs.] But it’s fun.

“You’ve done it it seems like your whole life, whether it’s in the basement or the driveway. I just remember my little brother being there, my parents being there and all being together after the game was pretty special.”

Few athletes in any sport have had the benefit of an older sibling to show them the professional ropes, and Trevor never takes that relationship for granted.

“I text him quite a bit to see how he’s doing, [and] he’s texting me to check in on me, so he’s obviously been through it all before and he’s got a lot of advice I can draw from and he’s been in the league for a pretty long time now,” van Riemsdyk said.

“It’s definitely a bit of an advantage to have a brother that’s done it all before. … Just in general just the way he prepared himself and looking into every little detail of how he can make himself better, whether it’s on the ice, off the ice, the training he did. Just the relationships he’s made, it shows you what you need to do and the things that are more important than others.”

No doubt that has helped van Riemsdyk create consistency in his game and earn a badge of dependability. It’s proof that all the late-night workouts when he was younger, the effort it took to recover from injury, the lessons he’s learned from veteran teammates—all of it has added up to what looks to be a promising career.

“Just doing the things [coaches] ask, that’s how you build up the trust,” van Riemsdyk said. “They don’t want to have to ask you 10 times. They just want to put it in your head and then know that they can depend on you to do it, whether it’s changing up a tactic or the things you do that they want you to do a different way.

“You just want to do the things that got you here, that have gained you the trust of the coaching staff. … Just because you see guys doing certain things doesn’t mean you want to do that kind of stuff. That’s when you find yourself getting in trouble. … Defensively, just taking away time and space [from opposing forwards is what’s most important].”

Van Riemsdyk has stuck to that plan, and his teammates have noticed. As a result, he hasn’t even had to say much.

“He’s more of a quiet guy, but I’m pretty quiet myself too,” Hjalmarsson said. “But when you start talking to him, he opens up a little bit, and that’s kind of how I am too. You need every single kind of character on the team, and he’s a super nice guy, and I’m glad to have him as my teammate.”

SEASON OPENER

Blackhawks vs. St. Louis

7 p.m. Wednesday, NBC Sports

Note: The team’s traditional red carpet event, featuring past and current Hawks players, will be held starting at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday outside the United Center.

@redeyesportschi | chsosa@redeyechicago.com