Photo credit: Steve Dunsmoor

By Regan Bartel

Speed on the ice and in the pool

Dipping toe into WHL waters

Dec 6, 2022 | 6:00 AM

Grady Lenton is the first to admit he wears a Speedo.

Wait! What?

No, the Kelowna Rockets rookie forward won’t be confidently walking the beaches wearing one while attempting to cool off this summer in Okanagan Lake.

A competitive swimmer while growing up in Delta, Lenton was donning the revealing water gear as a means of reducing friction and drag in the water.

“Growing up, I wore what they call Jammers”, Lenton told RocketFAN. “They go down to your knees. As you get older, it (Speedos) is what everyone gravitates to. It is a normal thing in swimming, but some people think it’s pretty funny.”

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A four-sport athlete which also included success in baseball and basketball, Lenton had to make a choice on where he wanted to put his energy.

“My mom used to swim when she was growing up and then family friends were in a swim club and so I joined it. I am still a competitive summer swimmer. It is great for off-season training as well.”

The freestyle stroke, also known as the front crawl, and the breaststroke are the two disciplines the talkative forward competes in.

An eighth-round WHL Prospects pick in 2020, Lenton is one of a handful of players on the Rockets roster that never attended an academy, instead improving his skills at the minor hockey level.

“I had a chance to play against those schools, but money was a factor”, Lenton said honestly. “I live near Delta Hockey Academy, but I chose to take a different route and it worked for me.”

Lenton put up solid numbers in his final season of midget with the Greater Vancouver Canadians, scoring 16 goals and collecting 37 points in 36 games.

While this is technically his rookie season in the WHL, he had the privilege of being called up last year for one game. It came on November 26, 2021 against the Spokane Chiefs.

He also dressed in one playoff game in an opening-round series loss to the Seattle Thunderbirds.

“I was prepared to make the team this year”, Lenton added after a cup of coffee with the squad last season. “I signed early last year, and I probably would have been confused had I not made it this year”.

It took him just 12 Western Hockey League games to score his first career goal, a wrist shot from between the hash marks in a home game against the Spokane Chiefs.

“I dumped the puck in and put pressure on the defenseman”, Lenton recalls. “Andrew Cristall made a nice play and I tried to get the puck on net. I didn’t know it went in at first, but it just trickled in.”

Having just turned 17 in August, Lenton admits scoring goals hasn’t been easy in his first year of major junior hockey.

“It is very hard to score at this level. I don’t get too many chances with the amount of time I am on the ice, but when you get those chances, you have to bare down and score. I notice there isn’t as much time as last year.”

I think I am pretty calm with the puck”, Lenton added when asked to describe his greatest asset as a player. “I think I see the game pretty well and getting open is a good part of my game too.”

The personable 5’10, 185-pound forward understands that playing fourth-line minutes is typically the road most traveled when cutting one’s teeth in the WHL.

“Coming into the season, I said I wanted to be in the line-up every night. I just need to work hard in practice, and when I get more ice time, hopefully, more points will come.”