{"id":649868,"date":"2026-03-12T08:07:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T08:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/649868\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T08:07:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T08:07:19","slug":"the-making-of-collin-graf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/649868\/","title":{"rendered":"The Making of Collin Graf (+)"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 The San Jose Sharks\u2019 Collin Graf has always been an underdog.<\/p>\n

According to his mom, Terri Graf, a seven-year-old Graf didn\u2019t make the first team that he had to try out for, the East Coast Wizards.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, he was really disappointed, but he was seven, I\u2019m not sure he really got it. Fortunately for him, we\u2019re like, \u2018Well, you can still play hockey, there\u2019s another, another team here.\u2019 We took him to that tryout, and he made that team,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI think at that point in his life, it was just, \u2018I just want to play hockey.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Collin Graf remembers missing out on the Bedford, Massachusetts-based Wizards slightly differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted me to make it because the drive was closer,\u201d Collin laughed, said of his father Robert and his mother.<\/p>\n

Instead, Graf made the Assabet Valley Patriots, now known as the Patriot Hockey Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one he made and the one he didn\u2019t make, they played against each other \u2014 but obviously, the one he didn\u2019t make was a better team. They kind of always won, and he kind of always had a little chip on his shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n

That chip on his shoulder has served Graf well throughout his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs he got older, he was small, he was very small, so he tended to get a little bit overlooked because of his size,\u201d Terri said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Graf, unlike younger brother Justin, who\u2019s scoring at a point-per-game pace for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders right now, didn\u2019t play in the USHL. The NHL skipped drafting him for three years. The most prestigious NCAA programs like Boston University and Michigan weren\u2019t interested.<\/p>\n

Even as a San Jose Sharks prospect, Graf, signed out of Quinnipiac, hasn\u2019t received as much of the limelight, because of the likes of the 2024 No. 1 pick Macklin Celebrin<\/a>i, 2024 No. 11 Sam Dickinson<\/a>, 2023 No. 4 Will Smith<\/a>, and more.<\/p>\n

But the 23-year-old has arrived this season as a bona fide middle-six winger and a top penalty killer. He\u2019s tied for third on the Sharks with 16 goals.<\/p>\n

Graf returns home on Thursday night, as the San Jose Sharks visit the Boston Bruins at TD Garden.<\/p>\n

This is Graf\u2019s second NHL homecoming game, but this time, he\u2019s coming back as an everyday NHL\u2019er, unlike as a rookie last season.<\/p>\n

Terri and Collin Graf spoke to San Jose Hockey Now about his formative years, and Terri shared many pictures of a young Collin.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 The San Jose Sharks\u2019 Collin Graf has always been an underdog. According to his mom, Terri…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":649869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[42],"tags":[3103,63473,276034,1322,276035,259181,32158,28398,276036,293,17960,150557,276037,1328,44270,62,276038,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-649868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-boston-bruins","tag-collin-graf","tag-east-coast-wizards","tag-featured","tag-freddie-meyer","tag-greg-carter","tag-jack-eichel","tag-jeff-skinner","tag-justin-graf","tag-nhl","tag-quinnipiac","tag-quinnipiac-university","tag-robert-graf","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sjhn","tag-sports","tag-terri-graf","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}