He’s also learned from his uncle, Pascal Rheaume, Manon’s younger brother. Pascal was an undrafted forward who played 318 NHL games with six teams through nine seasons from 1996-2006 and won a Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils in 2003.
“The thing that sticks with me is, everyone does a lot, especially when you get to older levels, and it’s about who’s going to do more,” Rheaume-Mullen said. “How are you going to get that extra advantage when there’s a day you feel like (garbage) or your legs are heavy. How are you still going to dominate and be the best player on the ice? So just all those little habits add up, too.”
Rheaume-Mullen started skating when he was around 18 months old. His mother took him on the ice in his skates and helmet, with a pacifier in his mouth and his blankie in his hand. He began taking full skating lessons at the age of 3.
“Ever since I can remember, I’ve been skating,” he said. “It’s just been my passion, and it’s a hobby for me, too. I love it.”
He was 10 years old when he decided he’d had enough of being in goal and wanted to be a skater. It was after The Brick Invitational Hockey Tournament in Edmonton. He didn’t play much and “it was so hard on him,” Rheaume said.
“He was like, ‘I never want to feel like this again.’ It just switched how much work he wanted to do, training as much as possible. He would be sometimes annoying me in the house because he would pretend to be skating and stickhandling. He just wanted to play and be better. He doesn’t like to not be good at something.”
He’d played some forward during his goalie years and enjoyed practicing more as a skater. Rheaume said she admitted it was a “big relief” when he stopped playing goalie.
“I think it saved my mom from having a heart attack because every game she’s watching my older brother, she gets super nervous, I can’t even talk to her,” Rheaume-Mullen said. “So she was pretty pumped when I switched.”
He left an impression on the Sabres at development camp, who saw “good, promising things” from him, according to Mair. Now he’s ready to carry what he learned there and from his first year in college into his sophomore season at Michigan.
“You can’t just skate and then work out and then do whatever you want after,” Rheaume-Mullen said. “It takes so much more than that to be a pro. I think that’s what NHL players are so good at. … That’s a big thing I’m going to take with me.”