Kashawn Aitcheson and his Barrie Colts teammates aren’t interested in excuses.
The Colts adopted the motto “No one cares, work harder,” for this season to keep the focus on their game and to not let themselves get too high or too low at any point of the year.
Aitcheson believes that the message their motto delivers is to always push to be better and never let doubt creep in.
“It’s been our motto all year,” Aitcheson told TSN on Tuesday. “We always want to get better, and we don’t want to feel too good about ourselves at times. We always want to push to be better for one another and for ourselves.”
Barrie’s focus this season helped them win the Ontario Hockey League’s Central Division with a 45-14-9 record, claiming the second seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Colts cruised through the first two rounds of the playoffs, defeating the Niagara IceDogs and Ottawa 67’s in five games each to reach the Eastern Conference Final. That set the stage for a matchup against the Brantford Bulldogs, who finished with the league’s best record at 48-10-10.
It was a series that truly put Barrie’s motto to the test.
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 3-1 series lead, with Brantford having an opportunity to end the series at home in Game 5.
Barrie then clawed their way back thanks to some overtime heroics from veteran forwards Brad Gardiner and Mason Zebeski in Games 5 and 6, respectively, to set up a winner-take-all Game 7.
The comeback was completed with a sound 5-0 win in Game 7 with netminder Ben Hrebik making 40 saves for the shutout and Aitcheson proving a goal and an assist with a plus-4 rating.
After the game, Aitcheson and head coach Dylan Smoskowitz made sure the hockey world knew their motto, answering every question with “No one cares, work harder” in the post-game press conference and gave them national attention.
Barrie was fined $15,000 for the stunt, and Smoskowitz has since apologized and admitted that he pushed his co-captain to follow along. Aitcheson laughed off the controversy but was very complimentary of the Bulldogs.
“[The Bulldogs] are hell of a team,” Aitcheson said. “They have all those [NHL] first-round picks, some high-end draft prospects, and they’re coached super well. It was obviously a dog fight there, and we got it in seven. But there were a lot of chances where it could have gone the other way.
“Obviously, going down 3-1 is never ideal, but, from top to bottom, we never lost faith and never lost hope that we were going to win the series. I think the biggest thing that kept us going forward was that belief and the care that we have for one another in the room.”
The Game 7 victory is just another feather in the cap for Aitcheson’s strong career in the OHL. Aitcheson has become one of the premier defencemen in the league, combining his physical style of play with scoring touch.
The 6-foot-2, left-shot blueliner led all OHL defencemen in scoring this season with 28 goals and 70 points in 56 games to go along with 97 penalty minutes. He was named co-captain of the Colts, along with teammate Cole Beaudoin, prior to the season as they look to take the next step together and hopefully represent the OHL at the Memorial Cup.
Aitcheson believes going through adversity like what they went through with Brantford is only going to help the team moving forward as they take on the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL Championship Series.
“Being in those big high-leverage games helps a lot,” said Aitcheson. “I’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of experience over the years playing some big games, but all of our young guys got that experience in that Game 7 too. They got their taste of a tight game and every single one of them showed up.
“We played well, and I think that’s just going to give us more confidence when the moments get bigger and the lights get brighter. We’re playing the best of the best now and we’re playing against the other team’s top lines and best players, which will be good for our development.”
The Colts are facing a Rangers team that finished the regular season with the league’s second-best record at 47-14-7 and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
Kitchener has been dominant throughout the postseason, sweeping the Saginaw Spirit in the first round and then taking out the Soo Greyhounds and Windsor Spitfires in five games each, respectively.
“It’s going to be another really good series, and it’s going to be a battle,” said Aitcheson. “After going up against such a good team like Brantford, it gave us a huge confidence boost. They’re a really good team but we just have to play our game, take the series as it comes, and see what happens.”
The trip to the OHL final is the culmination of a busy year for Aitcheson. He began the hockey year with the New York Islanders as part of their training camp after he was selected 17th overall in the 2025 NHL Draft.
Aitcheson was joined by first-overall pick and Calder Trophy finalist Matthew Schaefer, along with top prospects Cal Ritchie and Victor Eklund, as part of a newly developed prospect pipeline for the Islanders. The 19-year-old said that he used the experience to improve his overall game and soak in what he could from NHL players.
“It was a really cool experience,” said Aitcheson. “The Islanders organization was first class and had everything I needed and more. They were having me work on my overall game and just trying to be better. [So,] I was working on my skating and just being a student of a game.”
After returning to Barrie, Aitcheson shifted his focus purely to the Colts and what he had to do in the OHL but still wanted to keep tabs on his fellow prospects.
“I’ve tried to [keep tabs] a bit, especially to see how Schaefer and Ritchie are doing,” said Aitcheson. “[Schaefer] is a hell of a player; a great human being, and he deserves everything he’s been getting and more.
“Eklund and [Cole] Eiserman were called up from the AHL in the last games there, so I definitely keep tabs and talk to the guys about how they’re doing and all that. Hopefully I get going with those guys and the Islanders in the coming years.”
Aitcheson also had the opportunity to represent Canada at the World Juniors earlier this year. He provided a goal and four points in seven games but was unable to secure the colour of medal he wanted at the tournament.
Canada fell to Czechia in the knockout stage for the third consecutive season, losing 6-4 in the semifinals. Aitcheson and Canada went on to win bronze with a 6-3 win over Finland the next day, but the disappointment is something that lingers.
The Toronto native believes that the lessons that he learned from his experience are something that he’ll be able to carry the rest of his career and give him context as a leader with the Colts.
“It’s not about who’s on our team or about the high-end players you have,” said Aitcheson. “It’s about the 25 brothers you have in the room beside you and whether they’re willing to do whatever it takes to win. They have to sacrifice anything.
“There was no real difference in the pressure I felt with Canada. I always expect to be the top dog going into games, and I never want to think I’m an underdog. It’s the same [going into the final], and Kitchener also expects to win.
“You just kind of take one game at a time, be where your feet are each day, and see how the series goes from there.”
