{"id":377966,"date":"2026-06-28T06:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T06:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/377966\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T06:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T06:09:09","slug":"knowling-on-having-fun-in-net-wedgewoods-skating-funny-goalie-origin-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/377966\/","title":{"rendered":"Knowling on Having Fun in Net, Wedgewood’s Skating, Funny Goalie Origin Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Jose Sharks drafted Brady Knowling<\/a> at No. 127 overall in the fourth round of the NHL Draft on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-5 left-handed goaltender wants to be known for his skating ability, not just his size.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want my name to be a part of a sentence where it\u2019s like, \u2018Wow, his skating is really good for his size,’\u201d Knowling said. \u201cBecause a lot of these bigger goalies are stereotypically not as good as skaters as everyone else, and it\u2019s like, yeah, I\u2019m 6-foot-5 but I want to be able to be an unbelievable skater.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Wedgewood\u2019s skating, for example, has impressed Knowling<\/p>\n

Knowling spent his last two seasons with the USNTDP, where he played 52 games across this year. He\u2019ll head to the Saginaw Spirit for a year, before joining Boston University.<\/p>\n

Knowling spoke about his mind-set after September surgery, having fun<\/a> and being competitive in the net, his dual citizenship, knowing ex-Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings star Jason Allison, being a Jake Oettinger fan, and more.<\/p>\n

On how difficult it was to miss time after a September right knee debridement surgery\u2026<\/p>\n

One of the things people don\u2019t really understand is obviously surgery sucks, but it taught me so much, and I grew so much off the ice and matured so much as a guy. It was the first time being away from my parents, new billet house, all this stuff. I\u2019d never really gone through something like that, and to be able to sit on the sidelines and watch my team go around America play at the U-17 World Challenge, it sucked. I\u2019m going to be honest, it wasn\u2019t fun, but I think I did a really good job of having a good mindset of my rehab and stuff like that, and I did what I could to get better while I wasn\u2019t playing.<\/p>\n

On when he first started playing goalie\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s kind of a funny story. I basically told my dad that our goalies weren\u2019t good in house league, and then he was like, \u2018You can\u2019t say that unless you try it.\u2019 My dad was a goalie. I don\u2019t think he really wanted me to be a goalie, but as soon as I tried, I just fell in love. The biggest thing was I liked being on the ice the entire time, not having to sit on the bench. But I never really looked back.<\/p>\n

On what the future holds now that he has been drafted\u2026<\/p>\n

One of the biggest things my agent\u2019s ever told me was, \u2018Getting drafted doesn\u2019t make you better, it doesn\u2019t give you more skill.\u2019 I\u2019m still going to have to work. First round, fourth round, don\u2019t get drafted, you\u2019re still going to have to put your head down and work. The work just starts now. I\u2019m excited to see what the future holds, but my head wasn\u2019t really racing or spinning thinking about where I\u2019m going to get picked.<\/p>\n

On his dual citizenship, being born in Toronto\u2026<\/p>\n

My mom\u2019s from Chicago. The whole scouting process to the OHL when you\u2019re super-young, growing up in Toronto, is obviously super-big, and it\u2019s pretty much the only thing you hear. But I went to private school my entire life, so my parents, not really me (laughs) but more my parents cared a lot on my education. I cared about it, but they always knew that, who knows what I was going to do when I was older. And then I started thinking about college hockey, and I was like, \u2018This is really cool.\u2019 Then the rule changed, and then we explored with my agent the dual citizenship part, and we were like, \u2018This is a real opportunity to go to the program.\u2019 I skated with them, and then I was like, \u2018This place is unbelievable.\u2019 Then obviously I got the opportunity to try out and made the team, and it was a like no-brainer of choosing the program. Second to none, there\u2019s really nothing like it in the world.<\/p>\n

On how he brings competitiveness to the net\u2026<\/p>\n

The biggest thing is, it starts in practice, right? I like to make my teammates better and challenge them. I do have a smile on my face in practice, and like to make it fun and energetic. But it\u2019s not like I\u2019m bad. I\u2019m still dialed and focused, and want to make my players better and my teammates better, and it\u2019s not just me. It\u2019s the same thing in games. I want to be loud on the ice, and I\u2019m not yelling at people, it\u2019s not constructive criticism, it\u2019s more just hyping guys up and getting them going at TV timeouts, those things like that. You\u2019ll hear me if you come watch a game.<\/p>\n

On the decision to come to the Draft\u2026<\/p>\n

It was a no-brainer for me wanting to be here. No matter when you get picked, it\u2019s still a super cool thing to be able to wear the jersey, be in front of you guys, it\u2019s pretty special. I\u2019ll remember this for the rest of my life and be able to tell my kids one day.<\/p>\n

On how it felt to be drafted\u2026<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t even describe it to you. It\u2019s just speechless right now. To actually hear your name called, it\u2019s pretty special. There\u2019s a lot of emotions right now, but having a smile on my face, is all I care about.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t even describe the feeling of getting up to hug my dad, and my mom, and my sister. \u2026 I know my other family\u2019s in the stands, to know that they\u2019re there, and to share this opportunity and this moment with them. They\u2019re going to remember it for the rest of their lives, just like I am. It\u2019s pretty special.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Jose Sharks drafted Brady Knowling at No. 127 overall in the fourth round of the NHL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[62931,152822,93,27894,110887,9898,120676,88,90,89,98,31527],"class_list":["post-377966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-2026-draft","tag-brady-knowling","tag-featured","tag-jake-oettinger","tag-jason-allison","tag-nhl-draft","tag-ryan-miller","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-scott-wedgewood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}