WHL NOTEBOOK: Grubb’s connection to Wheat Kings pays off

Colin Grubb was destined to be a Brandon Wheat King one day.

The 17-year-old forward from Minot, N.D., has ties to the Western Hockey League team that are unusual for a young American player that started with Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray.

Murray lived in Minot for 15 years, with nine of them spent coaching the North American Hockey League’s Minot Minotauros. Grubb’s father John coached a high school team and the two men got to know each other.

“It’s a pretty special relationship,” Colin Grubb said. “I was pretty young and (Murray) was the coach of the junior team in Minot for a bunch of years from when I was very little, say a toddler, that’s when he started. The hockey community in Minot is a small group. Our families met through that, and growing up and always going to those games.

“When I got older, I found out he was an NHL player, there was an NHL player living in Minot, and I thought that was super special and I obviously looked up to him from a young age.”

Grubb got to know Murray in a different way when he played in the Brick Invitational Hockey Tournament in Edmonton with Team Manitoba. Each kid had to find a sponsor for the tournament and the Minotauros ended up supporting Grubb.

“I had to go into Marty’s office when I was nine or 10 and ask him if he could do it,” Grubb said. “I remember I was so scared. After that I wasn’t as scared of him, he was just a nice guy.”

The second prong of his familiarity with Brandon came with the city itself.

Grubb’s Minot teams came up to play in the Tournament of Champions every year. Part of that routine was attending a Wheat Kings game.

“That was always a highlight of the season for sure, coming up to Brandon and playing in that tournament,” Grubb said. “I think I was 12 and me and my buddy came up and watched a Wheat King game against (Regina Pats forward Connor) Bedard.

“We came up on a Tuesday night, it was a school night, and drove up after school and watched the game and drove home. That was our dads’ idea. Props to them because it was a blast: I don’t know how happy our moms were about that being a Tuesday night but it was a super fun experience.”

HOCKEY FAMILY

The six-foot, 188-pound left-shooting Grubb was born and raised in Minot, which is located 267 kilometres southwest of Brandon.

His father, who played in the USHL with the Waterloo Black Hawks for three seasons and spent four years in Division 1 hockey at Wayne State University in Detroit before the program folded, had him on skates quickly.

“As early as I could walk I started skating with those guys,” Grubb said. “I remember being scared of the high school guys. I would just sit in the penalty box and watch them go by. Those are my earliest memories.

“Youth hockey is great in Minot, there are a lot of great people around town still. I had a lot of fun growing up.”

He began to play mites hockey — the equivalent of Timbits hockey north of the border — around age five.

Grubb, whose family also includes mother Nicole and younger sister — and fellow hockey player — Kate, said the people closest to him have made his hockey success possible.

“I owe it all to them,” Grubb said. “With Shattuck, I sacrificed to leave at a young age but I would say it’s even more sacrifice for my family. My sister was young when I left and I know that was hard on her. She gets it now but when she was younger it was tough.

“My parents, with all the time and money and money they put into hockey for me and travel and letting me play at Shattuck was a huge ask from them. I’m eternally grateful for them and hope I can make it up to them any way I can. They played a huge role.”

He also golfed competitively through middle school and played some high school tennis and received a varsity letter when they took second in state as a team.

“I really enjoyed tennis but had to move away to Shattuck,” Grubb said. “I don’t regret anything about that but I definitely missed playing tennis with that group of guys for a couple of years.”

He moved to Shattuck St. Mary’s, the highly regarded prep hockey in Faribault, Minn., for the 2023-24 season after already skating with state teams. Grubb played on Shattuck’s U14, U16 and U18 teams, and was selected by the Wheat Kings 14th overall in the U.S. priority draft in 2024 after putting up 86 points in 50 U14 games.

He won a national championship with Shattuck-St. Mary’s 16U team in 2025 — and with the U18s in 2026 — and led the Under-17 Four Nations Tournament in scoring with eight points in four games.

NEXT STEP

In the summer of 2025, he was being viewed as one of the top forwards in the state in his junior class, and received offers from a number of schools before choosing in August 2025 to attend the University of North Dakota, beginning in the 2028-29 season.

“Being a North Dakota kid, it’s a pretty surreal moment,” Grubb said. “I’m super honoured to say I’m part of the UND family.”

There was also a Westman connection in that decision. He dealt with UND general manager Bryn Chyzyk of Virden during the later part of the recruitment process.

“When I came in, that’s who my conversations were with regularly and still are to this day,” Grubb said. “He’s a great guy. He’s very good at what he does. He’s super honest and will tell you what you’re doing well and also tell you what you need to work on. He’s got a great hockey mind.”

The one thing still up in the air was the team that would get him there.

After Grubb was drafted by Brandon, he came up two Christmas breaks in a row, and had some deeper conversations with Murray last year about his potential future with the team. He signed with the Wheat Kings in April.

“When I got drafted, the rules still hadn’t changed with the college stuff so I just kept getting a better and better connection through that,” Grubb said. “I was making sure I kept my door open there and the rule changed and I’m more than ecstatic to be here. It’s been a long time coming, and I’m super excited to be in Brandon finally and get the year going.”

A couple of his U16 teammates joined him in the WHL this season, Jake Gustafson of the Portland Winterhawks and Odin Vauhkonen with the Victoria Royals, and last year Luke Puchner of the Seattle Thunderbirds and Roberts Naudiņš of the Penticton Vees made the jump.

“The guys who went the year prior and are in their second year in the league had nothing but good things to say about the league and how fun it is,” Grubb said. “It got me really excited for coming up this year.”

The youngster has certainly impressed Murray. He said before the season that Grubb had the potential to be impactful this season, and with three goals, an assist, a plus-minus of 3 and a faceoff percentage of 52.7, he’s off to a great start.

“Colin is a good 200-foot player,” Murray said. “You know what you’re going to get from him night over night, but at the same time you have to remember this is his first junior stint and sometimes you take that for granted. He’s 17 but Colin is a real student of the game. I’ve known him since he was probably five years old. He was a rink rat and studies the game, wants to learn, asks lots of questions.”

Grubb, who competed with the American squad at the 2026 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, sees some of the same qualities in his game that Murray does.

“I think I’m a true 200-foot centreman,” Grubb said. “I think I can kind of do anything out there. I feel like I can be trusted in any situation, if we’re on the penalty kill or we’re on the power play, if we need a momentum shift, I feel like I can do that.

“With my versatility, I can play a bunch of different roles on the team and I’m happy to do so. If it’s an energy line or I need to go score some goals, I feel like I can bring that to the table and be a good teammate who the boys like.”

He considers himself a good playmaker who can score, but at the same time, he’s realistic about his game and understands he can be even better.

“Ever since I got to Shattuck, it’s the best kids in the country and skating against with them every day, I found I have to keep working on my feet,” Grubb said. “I feel like I’ve made big strides with that and definitely continue to work on it. My first three steps need to continue to get better. My speed has gotten a lot better but just the acceleration part.

“With my shot, goalies get so good, you’e only going to get so many opportunities so you have to make sure you’re ready to bury them. You can always work on that stuff.”

Grubb quickly noticed there are a lot of high-end players you have to keep an eye on in the WHL, and the pace is a lot faster.

The good news is his transition has been relatively seamless, in part due to the guys around him.

“It’s super easy,” Grubb said. “I was kind of not nervous, but I didn’t know any guys up here. I knew Jimmy Egan a little bit and Gunnar Gleasman being the two Americans, and I skated up here a little bit in the summer with some of the local guys like Jax (Jaxon Jacobson) and Brady (Turko), Josh (McGregor) and Joby (Baumuller). They were super welcoming to me and that made it a little easier.

“Once we got camp going and I played with some guys and was on teams and played against guys, it was super easy. I feel like we have a great group of guys in this locker room and I feel like we can go really far this year. We just have to keep working at our game every day.”

THIS AND THAT

• QUIZ — How many of the eight Wheat Kings can you name who made opening day rosters with National Hockey League clubs?

• WEEKLY AWARDS — The player of the week is 19-year-old Red Deer Rebels forward Poul Andersen of St. Louis Park, Minn., who had six goals and two assists in three games. The goaltender of the week is 17-year-old Carter Esler of Okotoks, Alta., who won both his starts with a 1.00 goals-against average and .961 save percentage.

The rookie of the week is 16-year-old Regina Pats forward Liam Pue of Langley, B.C., who had three goals and an assist in two games.

• TRADE FRONT — In the only deal around the WHL since Sept. 15, the Wheat Kings acquired overage defenceman Cole Slobodian of Brandon from the Portland Winterhawks last Thursday for a fifth-round pick in 2028 and a third-round pick in 2030.

• RIP — Former Moose Jaw Warriors defenceman Lyle Odelein of Quill Lake, Sask., died Friday at 58. He played 189 games in the WHL and 1,056 games in the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils, Phoenix Coyotes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers and Pittsburgh Penguins.

• SIN BIN — The league is dealing with four suspensions on Saturday for things that happened on Friday. Edmonton Oil Kings forward Dylan Dean awaits the length of his banishment after taking a kneeing major and game misconduct versus Regina, Kelowna Rockets forward Tomas Poletin received one game for a kneeing major and game misconduct versus Kamloops, Red Deer Rebels forward Kalder Varga received two games for a boarding major and game misconduct at Saskatoon and Wenatchee Wild forward Levi Benson received one game for a cross-checking major and game misconduct at Seattle.

• ALUMNI GLANCE — Former Brandon Wheat Kings goalie Ethan Eskit, 20, is in his freshman season with the University of Massachusetts. In his one start so far, he earned the victory with a. 971 save percentage. The Calgary product was drafted by the Wheat Kings in the sixth round in 2021, and made three appearances as a 16-year-old call-up. He earned a full-time spot in 2023-24 and made 25 appearances in each of the next two seasons before being dealt to the Victoria Royals for Jayden Kraus in July 2025. He made 53 appearances there last season.

• THE WEEK AHEAD — Brandon meets the Vancouver Giants (tonight, 9 p.m. CT), Kamloops Blazers (Wednesday, 9 p.m. CT), Penticton Vees (Friday, 9:05 p.m. CT) and Kelowna Rockets (Saturday, 8:05 p.m. CT) before flying home.

• ANSWER — The former Wheat Kings who were named to opening rosters are Roger McQueen (Anaheim), Ivan Provorov (Columbus), Ryan Pulock (New York Islanders), Braden Schneider and Vincent Iorio (New York Rangers), Ridly Greig (Ottawa), Mark Stone (Vegas) and Logan Thompson (Washington).