Ryan Graves: A pillar on the blue line
Standing at a towering 6-foot-5 and tipping the scales at 215 pounds, Remparts defenceman Ryan Graves is tough to miss. Ask any winger who dares try to slip by him along the boards and they’ll tell you they’d rather go head-to-head with a Zamboni! It should come as little surprise that his idol is Chris Pronger.
Now a prospect with the New York Rangers after they picked him in the fourth round of the 2013 NHL Draft, Graves owes a lot to Gordie Dwyer, who was his coach with the PEI Rocket (rechristened the Charlottetown Islanders in 2013).
“I wasn’t a very strong skater and my work ethic left a little to be desired when I got there, but I worked extra hard in my first season in the Maritimes. Gordie and our strength and conditioning coach Kevin Elliott wouldn’t leave me alone and kept on me so I had no choice, but to improve. I just kept working hard even through the summer and that definitely paid off for me,” admitted Graves, whose plus-minus went from minus-22 as a rookie to plus-7 the following season.
From forward to defence
Originally from Yarmouth, N.S., Graves began learning how to skate before he turned three.
“Along with my best friend, all we did was play hockey, on the ice, or in the basement. Our mini-sticks sure scored some spectacular goals back then,” recalled Graves. “I started out as a forward since I was bigger than all the other kids, but as I grew up I scored less and less! That’s when I realized I was more comfortable on the blue line and I also quickly found out that playing defence equals more ice-time.”
That position change led to him catching the eye of the PEI Rocket after having won several awards at the Bantam and Midget levels.
“I was super happy to have been picked by them so I could stay closer to home. I was familiar with PEI so I was able to adapt really quickly.”
It was a whole other story when he had to pack his bags for Val-d’Or which was a whole new experience for him.
“My teammates were great and helped me get integrated and I really enjoyed my time there. It was an enriching experience which helped me grow as a person. It was somewhere I wanted to do. The Islanders were looking to go younger and I was coming off a tough season so I lifted my no-trade clause. All I had to do was look up and down their lineup and I saw the Foreurs had a real shot of going deep into the playoffs. We had a strong team and after we won the President’s Cup and then we went to the Memorial Cup. What else could I ask for?”
Becoming a Ranger
The previous summer Graves heard his named called by the New Rangers at the 2013 NHL Draft.
“What an amazing feeling that was. Imagine, me ending up with the Rangers and potentially skating on the ice at Madison Square Garden. I only ended up seeing in photos however since training camp wasn’t held there!” remembers Graves who almost saw a shoulder injury dash his hopes of showing what he could do last fall. “I was injured over the holidays and got operated on at the end of the season. Even if I had been healthy I doubt I could have cracked their lineup the way Anthony Duclair did, but when I signed my contract last spring, it gave me a boost of adrenaline that fired me up for the playoffs.”
Memorial Cup, Take 2
Despite that nagging shoulder injury which took time to recover from, the Remparts still decided to acquire him in the summer even though he was expected to be out of the lineup until about November.
“Players rarely get the chance to play in the Memorial Cup twice and that’s what I’ll get to live in the spring,” said Graves whose team will get an automatic berth in the tournament as hosts of the event. “The city is amazing and the organization treats us like pros. I know our younger players will be nervous when the tournament starts. It will be up to me and other veterans to keep the team calm. We still have a lot of work to do before we get there though. The competition is fierce and no one is going to go easy on us. The road to a championship is a long and tough one. Personally, I know I have a few facets of my game to work on in order to one day reach the NHL. I need to get more solid and even faster. You have no chance in that league if you don’t skate!”
It certainly appears Graves is on the right track. Case in point: his hat-trick in a 7-3 win over the Oceanic in Rimouski on December 18.
