Duke's Path

If the player to the left isn't immediately recognizable to you, you're likely in the majority. Not many North American hockey fans follow the second division of Germany's Deutsche Eishockey Liga, but there may be a few people that know that the player in question is Reid Duke. Duke suited up for the Rosenheim Star Bulls in the DEL2 last season where he had a solid campaign, scoring 23 goals and 43 points in 41 games for the Star Bulls, but you might be wondering why I'm writing about Reid Duke at all if he's playing in one of the lower-division German leagues. The answer is quite simple: because he made NHL history.

One of the fun things that I enjoy doing is asking "Whatever happened to..." when it comes to players who have fallen off the radar. Often, they're having a successful career in another part of the world, but some have moved on to other projects and adventures. Reid Duke is one of those players who is having a successful career in places not found in North America, and it deserves some chatter because you can watch him play this winter if you're watching a specific league!

Before we get to the "where", Reid Duke made a little history on Monday, March 6, 2017 when he became the first player to sign a contract with the new NHL expansion team known as the Vegas Golden Knights. At the time, the 21 year-old was unlikely to make the first roster for the Golden Knights, but there was hope that he could develop his game at the AHL level for an eventual NHL debut.

Duke came from a couple of solid hockey programs in the WHL as he skated with both the Lethbridge Hurricanes and the Brandon Wheat Kings, and it was his time in Brandon where Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon got to know Duke. 115 goals and 254 points in 311 WHL games is a good showing for any player, so McCrimmon took a chance on signing the former 2014 sixth-round pick of the Minnesota Wild in the hopes that he'd work his way through the system and become a Golden Knight. One development camp later, he was off to Chicago for his first crack at the AHL with the Wolves!

Duke spent the next three seasons in and out of the lineup with Chicago, scoring just 15 goals and 16 assists in his 97 games. If you know how the Wolves are run, they push to win each and every year so the development of Vegas's prospects wasn't something they enjoyed spending a lot of time doing. As a result, Vegas went out and bought the San Antonio Rampage, moved them to Henderson, and got the Silver Knights running where prospects could be developed.

Duke followed the franchise to Nevada and played 62 games over two seasons with the Silver Knights, but he never really found his groove there either. Ten goals and eight assists were all he could net in Henderson, and it seemed like his aspirations of skating in Las Vegas were falling to the wayside. Duke needed to expore options after Vegas allowed him to become a Group VI unrestricted free agent in 2022, and he found an opportunity in Slovakia to continue his career as NK Nitra signed him to a one-year deal!

The 2022-23 season saw Duke score two goals and three assists in 16 games with Nitra before he was moved to Bratislava Slovan for the remainder of the season. In the 19 games he skated with Bratislava, he only recorded four helpers as it seemed the once-prolific scorer in junior simply lost his touch when it came to scoring goals and setting up goals. It was pretty clear that Duke needed a reset when it came to finding a good fit for his skill set, and that opportunity came when DEL2 team Rosenheim Starbulls came calling.

For whatever reason, Duke found some synergy with the German club as he finished second in team scoring, first in team goal-scoring, tenth in league goal-scoring, and seventh in the league in PIMs as his brand of "power forward" hockey put him back in the European hockey conversation. In looking for another challenge, Duke accepted a contract offer from the EIHL's Cardiff Devils for this winter as he'll skate in Britain's top hockey league for the 2024-25 season!

Duke's teammates look fairly solid in Cardiff as he'll share the locker room with Hunter Shinkaruk, Brett Perlini, and Zach O'Brien while boasting a goaltending tandem of Mac Carruth and Ben Bowns in net. Cardiff has all the pieces to be a threat for the EIHL championship, and having Reid Duke as part of that makes them a little more offensively-minded while bringing an element of toughness to the game. Might we see the Devils stand atop the EIHL at the end of the 2024-25 season?

Yes, Reid Duke will always been the answer to the trivia question of who was the first official player for the Vegas Golden Knights, but his career has been pretty fruitful considering everywhere he's been and some of the experiences he's had. It's hard not to cheer for the guy after all he's been through, but HBIC will keep an eye on Reid Duke's progress in Cardiff, Wales next season to see how things work out for him in Great Britain. If you do tune into a game, watch for #27 on the Devils as Reid Duke will wear that number this season!

From being the first Golden Knight to potentially being one of the pieces for a Devils championship run, Reid Duke has had himself quite a professional hockey career so far!

Until next time, keeo your sticks on the ice!