Photo credit: Steve Dunsmoor

By Regan Bartel

Rockets have points in 8 of last 10

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Max Graham’s transition into the role of captain for the Kelowna Rockets has been a smooth one, and it’s clear that the 20-year-old forward is settling into the leadership role with ease.  

As the 29th captain in the franchise’s history, he’s embraced the responsibility with maturity and confidence. His leadership style, likely shaped by his experience in the WHL, appears to resonate well with his teammates.

“Off the ice, it has gone pretty smooth. On the ice, not so much,” the quotable forward told RocketFAN at practice Tuesday. “We are hoping for better results, but the captaincy wasn’t too much of an adjustment with good assistant captains, as they are guys that most times were acting like captains themselves.” 

Given that Graham has been with the Rockets for a while, it makes sense that the team would select him for the captaincy. His experience and familiarity with the franchise’s culture undoubtedly played a part in this decision. And with his maturity at 20 years old, Graham seems poised to carry on the legacy of past captains while forging his own path in the role. 

“Captain or not, you have to be paying attention,” Graham added when asked about being more aware of the circumstances surrounding the game, so if he is prompted to get a clarification from the officials, he can do it with competency. “You need to talk to officials if something happens, even talk to players if things are happening too, so you have to pay attention to what is going on, and most of the rinks have jumbotrons and play replays, so if you don’t know what’s going on, you can take a peek up and you will know what’s going on.” 

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While leading the WHL in penalty minutes last season, it will be hard to equal or surpass the number of minutes the Whitehorse, Yukon resident spent sitting in the box for roughing or fighting. The Rockets are the fourth least penalized team in the league.  

“Being disciplined is a huge key in every game,” he said. “The hard penalties to kill are the lazy ones, where you are tripping guys, holding or hooking. If we are taking hard penalties, running someone over or you are sticking up for a teammate, those ones are easy to kill. 

“You don’t want to be scared out there and be non-physical, because you are scared to take a penalty, so you need to be physical and compete.” 

Graham is a good example of a player who broke into the WHL four years ago where hardnosed hockey wasn’t in his vocabulary. Over time it became his bread and butter and it resulted in the New Jersey Devils drafting him this past summer.     

“I wasn’t a guy who loved to fly into the corners,” he continued. “I didn’t love to be a wrecking ball to create space out there. Slowly I have grown into it. If there are older players that are still timid, it usually has to do with size. Every player can play a different role. You don’t need to be a guy who lays out hits every single shift. If you are a guy who can score 50 goals, who really cares if you aren’t doing that,” he said with a chuckle.  

With his team completing a three game homestand tonight against the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds (104-7 The Lizard/RocketFAN pre-game show starts at 6:35 pm), Graham wants to see his team get back to its hard to play ways. 

“Consistency has been killing us,” he added. “We have a game where we play great and love how our structure is, and the next game it will be a bit sloppy. That is why are record (6-7-1-1) is mediocre to say the least. 

“The way to overcome that is coming to the rink every day, working hard and instilling those systems within us where it doesn’t become a choice, but a habit.”