From pick-up to the pros: Fredericton-based Grace Graham grinds her way to the top
***This was written months ago for school. Being posted here for exposure purposes.
Upon graduating from Cornell university and concluding her NCAA hockey career two years ago, winger Grace Graham returned home to Fredericton.
“I’ve been playing pick-up for the last two years on Sunday nights at 11 p.m.,” said the 24-year-old Graham, who has been playing in a LUG Sports league – a recreational co-ed college sports organization whose slogan is ‘keep the dream alive.’
“I was like, ‘geez, this is miserable’, going to work at 8 a.m. the next morning.”
Graham, a biology major in university, jumped around between jobs the last few years. She was a bartender at Trailway Brewing, a baker at The Coffee Mill, a lab assistant at BIOMATCAN, and a server at The Thirsty Boot on Crabbe Mountain. Now, she works for Fredericton-based microbial monitoring company LuminUltra as Product Management Coordinator.
“It’s been pretty cool,” she said about her position at LuminUltra.
Graham wasn’t invited to try-out for a team. “I’ve been trying to find hobbies and stuff after graduation, but there’s nothing quite like hockey,” she said of her decision to reach out.
Graham traveled to Montreal for try-outs over the summer. “There were a couple ice times, and they called me back and said that I made the league.”
Due to the structure of the Dream Gap Tour, Graham is able to base her training wherever she chooses, traveling for games and tournaments. Graham chose to stay where her heart is.
“I’m a little bit of a sucker for Fredericton,” she said.
In addition to her day job at LuminUltra having the option of remote work, Graham credits training with the University of New Brunswick’s women’s team and their coaching staff for her flexibility.
“UNB’s been a huge help. I get to practice with them, and Sarah and Cassidy Hilworth are just awesome coaches.”
She made her debut with Team Scotiabank of the Professional Women’s Hockey Player Player’s Association’s Dream Gap Tour on Oct. 15 in Montreal.
On the opposing Team Sonnet were nine Olympians, including Hilary Knight and Brianne Jenner.
Team Scotiabank lost the game 4-2.
“It was quite amazing to get the puck stripped from me while I’m going full speed, like it’s nothing,” said Graham. “Those are probably the fastest girls that I’ve ever played with.”
Not that Team Scotiabank is lacking talent, possessing nine Olympians of their own.
“It’s hard to know what my role will be in this league,” said Graham, who is one of a handful of players on her team who have never represented the national team at any level.
She added that right now she’s “still trying to shake off the rust.”
“I think my main role on the team is to just kind of… grind it out,” said Graham.
After all, that’s what she’s done her entire career.
It’s a style of play she says she adapted while playing just down the hill at the Lady Beaverbrook Rink with the FHS Men’s Black Kats during her senior year of high school.
“In university women’s hockey, you theoretically can’t hit – but you can rub out pretty hard, and being hard on pucks and winning your battles – I think I can give a lot of that credit to playing boys in grade 12,” said Graham, also crediting her Black Kats teammates and coaches Tim Smith and Jeff Malloy.
Graham scored four points in 34 games her freshman year of college hockey. But true to her self-described player type, she grinded.
“I had a year [at Cornell] – maybe two years – where I used to wake up my coach – I’d asked him to come on the ice at 7 a.m. – or maybe it was 6 a.m.? – it was very early, every day of the week in addition to our team practices just to practice as much as I could,” said Graham.
“Every time we went out we would end up stickhandling and skating, which I later realized were my two worst skills as a hockey player.”
Her final two seasons, she scored 26 points in 36 and 33 games respectively.
Graham’s team played their second game the following day against Team Adidas, where she lined up against stars like Kendall Coyne Schofield who participated in the fastest skater event at the NHL All-Star Skills Competition in 2019, beating Arizona Coyotes’ forward Clayton Keller, and NHL23 cover athlete Sarah Nurse.
Graham and Team Scotiabank prevailed, 5-0.
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Unlike most professional athletes, money is of secondary importance for Graham – she has another job for that. She does it because it’s fun to be playing competitive hockey and, just maybe, getting a shot at a try-out for the national team.
“If compensation comes with that, it’d be awesome,” she said.
But she says there’s also a team greater than the Team Scotiabank she represents on the ice. “In the back of my mind is being part of the team that builds a structured league for women’s hockey.”
“It’s a pretty cool time to be involved right now because I think we’re getting a lot closer. If that’s something I can be a part of, I’m really excited about that. I think one of my goals being in this league, is to help establish that very competitive women’s league with proper pay,” said Graham.
The next leg of the Dream Gap Tour takes place Nov. 4-6 in Truro, N.S., with Team Scotiabank set to play each day against each of the PWHPA’s three other teams.
“I haven’t really played [competitively] in Atlantic Canada since high school,” said Graham, “so it’s a pretty exciting thing.”
Graham added that she’ll have plenty of friends and family in attendance in Truro, and whether she’s glued to the bench or grinding it out in the corners as she does whenever she hits the ice, she’s enthusiastic about the experience.