Defense is what brought Ryan Graves to the Penguins
Share this post:
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, isn’t very close to a lot of places.
Including the rest of Nova Scotia.
Situated on the southwestern tip of the province, Yarmouth is nearly a four-hour drive from the capital city of Halifax. It’s actually closer to Maine (by boat).
Living in such a remote locale always has stuck with new Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Ryan Graves.
“Growing up, our closest game, from atom (ages 9-10) all the way through until I moved away to play midget (ages 15-17), our closest game would be an hour and a half, two hours,” Graves said via video conference Tuesday. “As a kid, that’s kind of fun. You’re in the car all the time. You carpool so you’re with friends and stuff like that. But as you get older, you start to realize what a commitment that is for parents, not just time-wise but financially.”
Having spent countless miles … er … kilometers and dollars traveling to games and camps as a youth, Graves was prompted to launch a yearly hockey school in his hometown to make it easier for children from his region to enjoy the sport. This year’s school will be staged in August.
“I know that it’s a big burden to travel and hotels,” Graves said. “The prices of hockey camps are crazy now. We keep our camp, honestly, pretty cheaply priced just to make it accessible for anybody that wants to come.”
A lot of things led to Graves wanting to come to Pittsburgh as an unrestricted free agent July 1. The most obvious of which was the lucrative six-year contract he signed that carries a salary cap hit of $4.5 million and contains a modified no-trade clause.
But beyond the financial aspects, the left-handed Graves (6-foot-5, 220 pounds) just felt wanted more by the Penguins than anyone else.
“You go into free agency, it’s stressful and you don’t know who’s going to be interested,” Graves said. “When there’s kind of mutual interest from both sides, it was honestly exciting for me. I wanted to go to a team that was in contention. I believe the Penguins are a team that will contend for years to come. It’s pretty cool to play with guys like (forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang), guys that are legends that are still very good hockey players even though they are getting a little bit older now. I’m really excited to join a group like that. It’s on the East Coast, which is something that I was happy about just because I’m from the East Coast and the time change is closer for family and things like that.
“There was a lot of things that checked boxes with Pittsburgh. It’s a really good fit.”
For the Penguins, they see a clear fit for Graves on one of their top two defensive pairings. With Letang’s long-time partner, Brian Dumoulin, having left via free agency, the Penguins see the 28-year-old Graves as a potential match with their franchise defenseman.
“He brings a lot of size to the group,” Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas said July 1. “But more importantly, he’s been very effective at playing against very tough competition in New Jersey and going back (to his time with the Colorado Avalanche). We feel that will help. He can complement and play with either Kris or (second pairing defenseman Jeff Petry).”
Graves is used to playing a supporting but demanding role. As a member of the Avalanche, he largely skated alongside Cale Makar, a winner of the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the league’s top defenseman. And with the Devils, he was primarily teamed with former Penguins defenseman John Marino last season on a pairing that routinely drew assignments against the opposition’s top lines.
In 78 games during the 2022-23 season, Graves set a career high with eight goals to go along with 26 points while averaging 19 minutes, 57 seconds of ice time.
While Graves does have some offensive acumen — he recorded the fastest slap shot (103.4 mph) during the American Hockey League’s All-Star skills competition in 2016 — there is no misconception about why he is in the NHL.
“I am definitely of a more defensive mindset,” said Graves, who averaged 2:24 of short-handed ice time last season. “I try to play a two-way game, but the emphasis on my game is definitely defensively, the penalty kill and just playing against top lines. I do jell, usually, well with a player that is good offensively and we can kind of play off each other. If they like to get in the rush, I can be a little bit more safe.”
It’s a safe assumption that Graves realizes what is expected of being a member of a team captained by a fellow Nova Scotian by the name of Sidney Crosby.
“Growing up, you look up to him,” said Graves, who trains with Crosby and other Nova Scotian NHL-ers during the summer. “He is kind of that age where he was breaking in as I was old enough to really understand what the NHL is. He is who everybody looks up to in our area. Younger, older, everybody idolizes him and for good reasons. He’s a great guy. He’s one of the best players to ever play the game. To know him on a personal level is very cool for me. Now, to get to know him as a teammate and to play alongside of him is going to feel kind of surreal.
“I know what kind ship he runs.”
Graves also knows he’ll need to stay true to the path that brought him to the Penguins.
“I’ll be more of a steady force and just try to defend well and to make clean breakouts and just transition the puck well and quickly,” Graves said. “Trying to get the puck into your best players’ hands is kind of the way I like to model my game.
“I’m going to try to do that in Pittsburgh as well.”
Notes: The Penguins will participate in a prospect tournament with five other NHL teams in Buffalo, N.Y. from Sept. 15 through 18. … The first on-ice practice session for Penguins training camp will be Sept. 21. A full schedule for camp will be released at a later date. … The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins signed veteran goaltender Garret Sparks to a one-year AHL contract.