Sward Returns to States With Championship In Mind
WENATCHEE, Wash. – After playing 132 games in a Spokane Chiefs uniform and 52 more with the Winnipeg ICE, defenseman Graham Sward has some goals in mind for his final season of junior hockey.
“Chief” among them for the former Spokane blueliner is bringing home a championship.
Sward is set to compete for one of the three Wenatchee Wild roster spots for 2003-born players on this year’s roster, and though there are a lot of accomplishments on his resume already, he says the one he really wants isn’t there yet.
“Junior hockey’s been really good to me,” said Sward. “I’ve made a lot of good friends, and a lifetime of memories. That’s the only thing that I’ve never done in the league – I’ve been in the league a long time, played through a COVID season and I’ve done a lot of things in the league, so that’s the one thing that I haven’t done is win. That’s my entire goal this year.”
Just months after being dealt to Winnipeg in a major early-season trade, his junior side made its own move to Wenatchee in mid-June. In that trade, Sward left the team that selected him in the 2018 Western Hockey League bantam draft, with its first-round selection. He earned that look from Spokane after two seasons on the Yale Hockey Academy under-15 prep team in which he impressed WHL scouts, picking up nine points during the 2016-17 season and 18 during the 2017-18 campaign.
He needed one additional year to be truly ready for the WHL, though – Sward made the most of it, playing in the British Columbia Elite Hockey League with the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds U18 squad, earning a BCEHL all-star nod with seven goals and 19 assists.
His WHL debut came on January 5, 2019 against his future club, scoring a goal in his first junior appearance with an 8-4 victory over the Kootenay ICE in Cranbrook, British Columbia. Sward scored 17 points the following year in his first full season in a Chiefs uniform, and picked up his only point in an 11-game 2020-21 campaign by scoring a go-ahead goal in a 4-3 loss to the Tri-City Americans.
After posting a career-best 43 points in 2021-22, he notched four more assists before moving east to Winnipeg in late October. Though his numbers with the ICE were a hair lower than they were the year before – he notched 33 points in 52 games with his new club – he played an undeniable role in Winnipeg’s run to the WHL Final, with his +42 plus/minus mark ranking third on the team among defensemen. Sward notched six points in the postseason, playing in all 19 Winnipeg postseason contests.
“That was all I knew up until this year, was playing in Spokane,” said Sward. “It was an awesome experience in Winnipeg – a little colder than I’d ever experienced being from B.C., but I really enjoyed it and we had a really good team. I’m excited to come back to the U.S. – I had a great time in Spokane and I really enjoyed playing in the States. All of the fans in the States are pretty wild – it’s an awesome division to play in. Being from B.C., I know a lot of guys who play in the BCHL, so I’ve been doing my research about what it’s like to play in Wenatchee, and I’ve heard nothing but good things from the guys who have gone in there as an away team. They say the rink gets loud and it’s an awesome place to play.”
Sward is a player who has turned heads both on and off the ice, including a selection to Team British Columbia in the Canada Winter Games in 2019. He earned the Chiefs’ Defenseman of the Year honor in 2022 before picking up a fifth-round selection from the Nashville Predators in last year’s National Hockey League draft.
Off the ice, he is renowned for his character and community work, earning the U.S. Division’s Humanitarian of the Year award for raising more than $3,000 as part of the “Movember” campaign for men’s health screenings and cancer research, while also teaming up with Brandon Wheat King Jake Chiasson to lead a hometown blood drive during the holiday break.
Sward is ramping up the training with just a few weeks to go before the Wild begin their preseason camp, while making sure to squeeze in time on the water and the golf course, as well as a vacation or two. He says this year’s group has the potential to be a memorable one, and has designs on making this season a special one for Wild fans.
“I was really close last year, and that’s the goal. You want to win the league and win the Memorial Cup,” said Sward. “That’s the goal for every season – I think we’ve got the pieces to do it. I think if you get some of those guys back, you’ve got a pretty good team. We’ve got how many first-round picks on our team, and that always helps, when you have future NHL superstars coming back to your team, I think we’ve got a legitimate shot.”