SAN JOSE — Collin Graf might have been born to play hockey. He definitely didn’t understand it on the time.
However today, Graf is making headlines on the ice. Most not too long ago, the second-year Sharks ahead scored two targets Thursday evening in a 5-3 loss to the Dallas Stars, notching the primary multi-goal sport of his profession.
Enjoying on San Jose’s high line with Macklin Celebrini and rookie Igor Chernyshov, Graf completed off a go from Celebrini within the crease and potted one other net-front go from Chernyshov.
This season has been Graf’s NHL breakout. He caught on the Sharks’ roster out of coaching camp and has performed in 34 of 35 video games, accumulating 18 factors.
“He’s put in a whole lot of work,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky stated. “When he first got here in, within the NHL, the tempo is extraordinarily excessive. So he went in after the summer season, put a whole lot of work in final 12 months to get the tempo up. And now his particulars, his hockey sense is absolutely what stands proud essentially the most. He’s a sensible particular person. And now he’s added one other layer to his sport with the checking element.”
Graf, 23, grew up because the son of engineers Robert and Theresa in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and his preliminary foray onto the ice got here for a unique cause.
“My mother simply needed me to discover ways to skate,” Graf stated. “After which once I was skating, there have been hockey gamers on the opposite facet of the ice, and I suppose I instructed my mother that I needed to do this.
“So then it took me like two years to get ok at skating to change into a hockey participant. And ever since, I’ve been a hockey participant.”
A hockey participant, however not one who was ticketed to be an expert from the start. Graf was undersized and undrafted popping out of juniors at 5-foot-8 and 145 kilos. He didn’t play for a Canadian main junior crew or within the American junior leagues, as a substitute staying inside the Boston Bruins’ junior improvement program.
He signed with Union Faculty in 2021, scoring 11 targets and 22 factors in his freshman season. Then he transferred to Quinnipiac, the place he led the Bobcats with 58 factors as they gained the nationwide championship.
He thought then about turning professional then however opted to return for yet another 12 months.
“I met with groups, and I positively thought-about it,” Graf stated. “My linemates, all of us ended up signing the following 12 months. We talked about it, and we needed to come back again. We had an excellent group of fellows. They’re my buddies. My greatest mates are nonetheless from school to at the present time. It was an ideal choice on my half, simply when it comes to getting larger, stronger, changing into extra mature as a human.”
Graf continued to develop his all-around sport and signed with San Jose after Quinnipiac’s season led to April 2024. He performed instantly, recording some extent in his second profession sport and ending with two in seven video games performed because the Sharks wrapped up the last-place season that landed them Celebrini with the No. 1 total decide.
The subsequent season wasn’t all the time glamorous for Graf. Although he joined Celebrini for 33 video games with the Sharks and compiled 11 factors, he spent a lot of the 12 months within the AHL with the Barracuda, placing up 35 factors in 40 video games.
It’s unsure how lengthy he’ll keep on the Sharks’ high line this 12 months. Will Smith is due again earlier than lengthy from an upper-body harm, and Warsofsky stated he might shuffle San Jose’s strains earlier than Saturday’s sport in opposition to Seattle.
However after adjusting to the tempo of the sport, Graf has made sufficient headway that he’s shortly changing into part of the Sharks’ long-term plans.
“He’s reworked his sport from what he was in school,” Warsofsky stated. “He’s attending to the purpose the place he’s accepting that increasingly more. There’s one other stage we proceed to push and get to, however he’s carried out a extremely good job. He’s right here late within the facility. You may inform he actually needs it, and that’s an vital piece of the entire thing.”
For Celebrini, who jumped into the NHL minted as a franchise star from the get-go, Graf’s intelligence is a separator that has emerged as he’s grinded his solution to the best stage.
“He’s one of many smarter gamers on the ice, and he’s all the time in the precise spot with an ideal stick,” Celebrini stated. “That’s why he’s been so nice on our PK as nicely, his skill to disrupt performs and browse performs earlier than they occur. It helps if you’re enjoying with him and attempting to create offense. He’s seeing the identical issues as I’m.”
It’s been a dream journey for Graf to achieve this level. He’s already blown his personal expectations out of the water.
“After I first went into school, I wasn’t occupied with the NHL or professional hockey,” Graf stated.
Now he has one of the best within the sport singing his praises.
“We’ve constructed an excellent relationship,” Celebrini stated. “The play speaks for itself. He’s simply so sensible and it’s simple to play off him as a result of he’s all the time considering two steps forward.”
