Alex Bales thriving in USHL while getting ready to play at Providence

Alex Bales has been thriving on defense for the Tri-City Storm. (Eldon Holmes)

Alex Bales continues to go places.

The 5-foot-9 defenseman from East Amherst, N.Y., already has skated regularly in a myriad of American locales, including Detroit, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, New Haven and now Kearney, Neb. His next stop will come later this year in Rhode Island at Providence College, where he committed to in the summer of 2022.

“I fell in love with it right away on my visit,” Bales said of his future alma mater. “I saw how hard their (defensemen) play, and I could see myself in their system. I liked the campus and the coaches, and it was a really good fit.”

Bales will join a Friars squad that finished 16-14-7 overall last season and won seven of its first 10 outings to start the current campaign while earning a top-five national ranking. Providence is looking to return to the heights of 2014-19, when it earned six consecutive NCAA tournament berths, played in two Frozen Fours, and won the 2015 national championship.

If Bales’ last name sounds a bit familiar, particularly to Boston-area hockey fans, it’s because he’s the son of former pro and college netminder Mike Bales. The Saskatchewan native backstopped both the Boston Bruins and the Ottawa Senators in his brief NHL career, after toiling three years in the crease at Ohio State University, from where he was drafted 105th overall by the Bruins after his freshman season.

The elder Bales also saw extensive action in both the AHL and the now-defunct IHL before finishing his playing career with 10 consecutive seasons in Europe, the last seven in Germany. He went on to serve as an NHL goalie coach with both the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes and is now an assistant coach with the Buffalo Sabres.

Before he gets to Providence to play for the Friars next fall, Alex, 17, who will be eligible for next year’s NHL Draft, has business to finish with the USHL’s Tri-City Storm. After spending last season with both Kent School and the Yale Junior Bulldogs in Connecticut, he finished the 2022-23 campaign with an eight-game audition with the Storm, notching one goal.

“Obviously a guy like Alex Bales, who we had big expectations for and we know we’re going to see great things from him in the future, to go in and get a first goal, I thought it sparked us,” Tri-City head coach Anthony Noreen told the Kearney Hub following the Storm’s 5-3 win over visiting Lincoln in the 2022-23 regular-season finale, in which Bales tallied his first career USHL goal.

Through his first 14 games this fall, Bales had notched six assists and was a plus-6 with 14 penalty minutes as the Storm sat among the top five teams in the USHL’s Western Conference.

“It’s going really well,” he said. “The team is playing well, and I’m adjusting well. Being up last season really helped my transition, and it’s going good.”

Bales has some company from his native Empire State on this season’s Storm roster. Charlie Kinsman (Orchard Park, N.Y.), who is committed to the University of Vermont, joins Bales on the blue line, while University of Maine commit Nick Peluso (Victor, N.Y.) is up front along with UMass commit Ryan Smith (Pendleton, N.Y.). Tri-City also has sent a host of players on to Providence College over the past two decades, most recently forwards Tanner Adams (Northport, N.Y.) and Graham Gamache, who both starred for the Storm last season.

Tri-City also has a track record of sending players on to the NHL, most recently Matthew Knies with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Shane Pinto (Franklin Square, N.Y.) of the Ottawa Senators. Three players on this Storm squad have been drafted by NHL clubs, including Canadian center Owen Beckner (Ottawa, 7th round, 2023), who is committed to Colorado College. Other draftees are Russian defenseman Vladislav Lukashevich (Florida, 4th round, 2021), who is bound for Northern Michigan University, and Boston-born blueliner Sean Keohane (Buffalo, 6th round, 2023), who will skate for Harvard starting next fall.

Bales previously played for the Honeybaked youth hockey organization in southeastern Michigan, and for the Pittsburgh Pens Elite, before heading back to the Northeast to play for the Buffalo Junior Sabres for two seasons. He split the 2021-22 campaign between Kent and the Yale Junior Bulldogs, and did the same last year when he tallied seven goals and seven assists in 17 games with the Bulldogs. He notched 4-9-13 points in 14 outings as an assistant captain with Kent, helping the Lions to the 2022 NEPSAC Martin/Earl Large School tournament title before taking up with Tri-City.

“Alex played with a level of confidence and poise that only our best players in my time at Kent have exhibited,” said Bales’ former prep coach Dale Reinhardt (Livingston, N.J.). “His first year with us, he was much more focused on his adjustment and playing solid defense, and he did a great job conquering those goals. During his second year, despite some injuries, we really saw his offensive game blossom. It was great to see him take that next step.”

Bales fits the mold of smaller, quicker contemporary NHL defensemen such as Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes and Columbus’ Zach Werenski, who both played collegiately at Michigan. Bales uses his smarts and skills to move the puck offensively and to counter opposing forwards when they have possession.

“I think I’m a smart player, use my feet to make plays, and am good in both zones,” said Bales, who also cited his compete level as a strength of his game. “I just want to keep up playing both ends. I think I do OK, although I can take steps in both areas to becoming better.”

Growing up as the son of a professional player, it wasn’t very long until Bales gravitated toward the game himself, although his father wasn’t his only hockey influence.

“It was definitely my older brother,” said Bales. “He played, and I wanted to be like him.”

Dad still helped out a tad, though.

“He built us an outdoor rink, where I played with my friends,” he recalled. “I was kind of put right into hockey with my dad, and I fell in love with it.”

“My fondest memories of him starting hockey was when we moved back to Canada from Europe, with our first backyard rink in Ottawa,” Mike said. “(Alex) was a little hesitant to get out there, but when he figured out he could go and play with his older brother, we couldn’t get him off the ice.”

That extended to late-night sessions with the lights on, until it was time for Alex to go bed.

Before finally settling into his spot on the blue line, Bales tried his hand at other positions on the ice, including some time put in at his father’s former vantage point.

“I tried goal, and I loved it, but I was better out of the net,” Alex explained. “In spring hockey, when I was young, my coach thought I was a good skater and put me back there on defense, and I did really well.”

Bales played both forward and defense up until the 12-U level, and it was around that time that he found he made a better defenseman overall.

“I kind of liked it more,” he said. “I could control the game, make reads and join the play, and I felt I could impact the game more.”

Although he tended goal at one point in his youth career, Bales didn’t feel any undue pressure to continue playing between the pipes to please his father.

“He let me find my own way,” Alex said. “He’s supported anything I did or wanted to do.”

Having worn various jerseys to date as he has progressed through the ranks, Bales has felt a special pride over the past two years in donning a USA sweater in competition for the first times in his career. He previously had attended three USA Hockey player development camps at the Select 17, Select 16 and Select 15 levels.

“Two summers ago, I played in the Five Nations Tournament in Colorado Springs,” he recalled. “It was my first time wearing the USA jersey, which was super special and unbelievable.”

He appeared in four games in Colorado that year, notching two goals and one assist for three points. He got a second opportunity to wear red, white and blue this summer in the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Czechia and Slovakia, where he served as an assistant captain, scored a goal in a win over Germany, and ultimately helped the U.S. earn a bronze medal.

“Playing international teams like Canada and Finland was awesome,” said Bales. “Representing my country was a big deal, and it was something I always wanted to do.”

While skating for the Storm this winter, Bales is studying a general high school curriculum online, as a senior, in preparation for graduation next year, before heading to Providence, where he plans to study business management.

He said he visited “seven or eight schools” before settling on Providence, including other Hockey East institutions, though his father’s alma mater out in the Midwest wasn’t necessarily in the mix before the younger Bales made his final decision.

“I talked to a bunch of coaches, but Providence definitely stuck out.”

Now it’s Bales who will look to stand out on the blue line for the Friars starting next fall.

“I knew from a young age, he really loved not only watching hockey, but that he really wanted to play hockey,” said his father. “I’m just happy he’s pursuing something he loves. You have kids, you want to them to be happy and satisfied with life. Right now, he’s pursuing his dreams, puts everything he has into it, and goes hard every day.

“I’m happy he has something like that that he’s focused on.”