Everything is coming together for Colin Grubb in a way his younger self would be absolutely thrilled about.
The Minot native grew up like many young hockey players in his home state, wanting to one day play at the University of North Dakota. But after making trips north to Brandon as a child to watch the Wheat Kings play, Grubb found himself drawn to the WHL as well. And with the NCAA rule change, he gets to fulfill both dreams.
“Being from Minot, the two hockey Meccas are UND, you grow up with UND, and then for me it was Brandon,” Grubb said. “Just the fact that I’ll be able to do both of those is crazy for me. I’m super grateful for this opportunity to come about.”
Grubb’s connection to the Wheat Kings goes back to some of his earliest hockey memories. He was about seven years old when he attended his first Wheat Kings game, and at that time the Black and Gold were a juggernaut, on their way to a WHL championship in the 2015-16 season.
“The first one I can remember was the year the Wheat Kings won the WHL,” he said. “I remember, one of the first games I went to, Nolan Patrick was still in town playing and just how cool that was. The buzz in the rink was crazy. They had a great squad. When you’re an American growing up, back then, if you wanted to play college, this wasn’t really going to be an option and now that it’s opened up, little me would be just over the moon that I could both play college hockey and come up to the Wheat Kings.”
As long as Grubb is ticking childhood dreams off the list, he can tick off another after representing Team USA at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. Playing in one of the most competitive tournaments on the junior hockey calendar, Grubb was a top-line mainstay for the Americans, posting four points in five games en route to a silver medal.
“We had a great group of guys and I don’t think I’d have wanted to do it with any other group,” said Grubb. “We really bonded over those couple of weeks. It wasn’t the way we wanted to end up, obviously, but I’m super proud of our group and super grateful for the opportunity to wear the U.S. sweater again.”
That experience will help the 6-foot-tall centre with the jump to the WHL, but he was already fairly well prepared thanks to three seasons at the vaunted Shattuck St. Mary’s school. There he was not only a consistent offensive threat, but won national championships at the 16U and 18U levels in back to back seasons.
“It’s just a great community, and people don’t always get that, it’s a school too and the people at the school are just phenomenal and I met so many great people in my time there,” Grubb said. “And the three years of hockey, coming in as a ninth grader and not knowing what to expect, I ended up having a pretty good year my first year and made the team up my next year, an age up. Then to win two national championships was some of the cooler moments of life. Shattuck does a great job of turning you into a young man and it helped my game a ton.”
Between his years at one of the top prep programs in the world, and his international experience, Grubb was already pretty well prepared for his first camp with the Wheat Kings. This summer he’s been preparing even more, traveling to Brandon to skate with the likes of Jaxon Jacobson, Brady and Easten Turko, and Josh McGregor. Once the season begins, he knows he can have an impact right away and knows what kind of player he wants to be.
“I’m a two-way centre who can play in all situations,” Grubb said. “Up a goal, down a goal, power play, penalty kill, I play a pretty complete game and I like to help on both sides of the puck.”
The time to training camp can now be measured in days and Grubb is counting them down. It makes sense. After all, he’s been waiting to be a Wheat King for a long time now and he’s close now to getting his chance.
“Meeting some of the guys, meeting the new staff, I can’t wait to get going and play some hockey,” he said. “It was super fun to be able to get a week or two of hockey in here in August, and I can’t wait for puck drop in September.”
