The preparatory schools have started calling and college and professional scouts are lurking.
Brandon Graf, a 14-year-old “phenom” goalie, enjoyed a stellar spring and summer of tournament competition to further his standing as one of the outstanding young net minders in this country, as well as hockey hotbeds Canada and Russia.
“The Scouting News” is an insider publication used by hockey scouts to follow and comment on up and coming competitors on the ice. Graf, a Cape Christian Academy ninth grader, had his summer tournament season categorized as “pretty unbelievable.”
According to The News, Graf “faced plenty of elite 1999 offensive guns and gave them all they could handle. He had several 40-45 save games and pretty much single-handedly kept his team in tournaments.”
The reference to 1999 indicates competition among players born in that year, which is how young hockey athletes are matched.
The youth hockey insider who followed Graf’s summer also noted that “he really moves well side to side and is very economical in his movement, with not a lot of wasted motion. A lot of goalies are making dramatic glove saves and involuntary showboating. He just uses his angles to the puck, does nothing in particular, and still makes all the stops your heart desires. The way he squared himself up, scorers did not have anything to shoot at, plain and simple. He made top forwards look pretty bad overall.”
Parents Bruce and Cyndy Graf felt their 14-year-old was not quite ready to move far from home to a prep school. He’s being courted by hockey-oriented academic institutions from Minnesota to New England. The family is leaning toward a northeast prep school for his sophomore year.
“We didn’t want to send him as a freshman,” said Bruce. “We’re leaning toward New England for the proximity to where we live.”
Dad added that scouts said going to Minnesota may send the family on a path to be “mid-westerners” for college because scouts in that part of the country recruit athletes for those areas.
The 5-10, 175-pound Graf has long been on the radar of devout hockey observers but his spring and summer performances made him the talk of several prestigious tournaments.
“He worked his butt off and kept some of his teams in those games, but he can always improve on everything,” said dad. “He’s always working to improve.”
Bruce said hockey players with a legitimate shot at professional competition are drafted by age 17, otherwise, he said, “they end up in men’s leagues.” His son turns 15 in February.
“We certainly have decisions to make,” said Bruce. “We’ll check out the goalie coaches and make sure the whole package is right. If you’re progressing fast they usually won’t let you finish college. Pro scouts are everywhere, but with goalies, they usually want the kid to stay in college and not come out early.”
Reach Rossi at joerossi61@comcast.net
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