Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Anyone could be forgiven if they thought that they had seen the last of defenseman Ryan Graves in the Pittsburgh Penguins lineup when he was dispatched to the American Hockey League.
After all, he didn’t make the NHL roster out of training camp, cleared waivers and was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. And that was after he struggled during the first two seasons of a roundly criticized six-year contract with a $4.5 million salary cap hit.
Not to mention he is 30 on a club that is trying to blend a youth movement with some stalwart veterans.
A month later, though, Graves is back with the NHL club, and he’s making it work. More than just making it work.
In two games since he was recalled, Graves has partnered with Connor Clifton on the third pairing. He has seemed more than steady, and for good measure he had three shots and scored the Penguins’ only goal Saturday in a 2-1 shootout loss at New Jersey.
Graves got this latest chance because he zigged when he could have sagged. It wasn’t easy finding himself in the AHL for the first time since 2018-19.
“It was a bitter pill,” Graves said. “You never want to do it. But I got to work on my game down there in a way that I never could here. I wouldn’t choose to do that, but you’re in that situation. There’s nothing you can do about it. So you have to make the best of it.”
Asked for more specifics, Graves pointed to his elevated role in the AHL.
“I was playing 25-plus minutes a night, playing on the first power play,” he said. “I’m not going to do that here. I don’t expect to. You’ve got (Erik Karlsson) to do that. You’ve got guys who are much better at that.”
Graves’ contract and his contributions – or lack thereof – hang heavy on Penguins president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas.
On his weekly Game Plan interview on Sportsnet Pittsburgh, Dubas raved about Graves’ time in Wilkes-Barre.
As in, really raved:
“I think with veteran guys especially, (the way) they handle it, it’s very binary — they either go down and they’re not thrilled about it, but they get back to work, or they go down and they sulk and it goes sideways” Dubas said.
Dubas said Graves – and veteran forward Danton Heinen, who took the same route and now also is back on the NHL squad – did the former.
“’Gravy,’ I’m probably happier for him than anybody,” Dubas said. “Obviously a long-time NHL player on a long contract. That’s a tough thing to handle. To his credit, he’s gone down and he’s been awesome around the (locker) room and with the team in a leadership perspective, played massive minutes and really used the time there … to really build himself back up. Our key now is that we don’t want to screw that up. Let’s continue to build on it.”
Dubas noted that one of the Penguins’ promising young players, defenseman Owen Pickering, also started the season in WBS and initially got the nod over Graves for a callup, but it’s now Pickering’s turn to work on his game in the AHL.
Dubas also realizes that Graves has been a polarizing figure.
“It’s been a player there’s been a lot of discussion about in his time here,” Dubas said. “It hasn’t gone as anyone projected. But now is his chance to change the story, and he’s done the work in Wilkes-Barre and made such a great impact there. It was fun, especially the last couple weeks, watching him. You couldn’t help but be happy for the way that he was playing.”
Graves led WBS with a plus-9 plus/minus. Last season in 61 NHL games, he was a minus-15. He said he regained his confidence with the puck in WBS.
He’s probably not going to start stacking up goals – he has 33 of them in 435 NHL games – but he’ll take the fluky but important one he scored against the Devils, when his slapshot glance high off a New Jersey player and in.
“It’s not the prettiest goal in the world,” Graves said. “Kind of a lucky bounce, but I’ll definitely take those.”
He’ll also take the state of his game right now.
“I’m happy with where I’m at,” he said. “I’ve done some really good things. Just trying to transition what I’ve worked on to applying it to the role that I’ll play here vs. the role that I play there. Steps in the right direction.”
Dan Kingerski spoke with Graves following the game Saturday and contributed to this story. Several quotes are exclusive to PHN
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