Eric Gryba is making the most of an opportunity to train in his hometown of Saskatoon, and spend time with his growing family ahead of the upcoming NHL season.
At the age of 30, Gryba is too old to play for the Saskatoon Blades but that didn’t stop him from suiting up on Monday to practice with the team.
“It’s really good to come out here because, there’s the structure and the pace of an NHL camp. These coaches know what it takes for these guys to make it to the next level … and they’re trying to put that in place,” Gryba said.
“Eric texted (Blades assistant coach) Ryan Keller the other day … asking about skating, and my first answer right away was ‘absolutely, we’ll make room for him,’” Blades head coach Mitch Love said.
“To have an NHL player in our locker room is great, and hopefully we can continue to have that with other local pros that are in the area.”
The Saskatoon native recently welcomed his first child with his wife during off-season, which prompted him to stick around the city longer. His baby is a month old, and has already done an episode for her father’s online cooking series Grilling with Gryba.
“I don’t know what I did before (the baby), but I’m not doing it anymore. That’s how I can explain it. I’m thinking, ‘I’m pretty sure I used to have free time’ and I don’t know what I did with it, but I’m not doing that anymore,” Gryba said with a laugh.
“It’s great, she’s great, it’s cool to be with her every single day.”
Gryba said playing with the young Western Hockey League (WHL) players at their training camp was rejuvenating and gave him a chance to share his NHL experience.
“There was a couple time where I pulled a couple of the young defencemen aside, and gave them a tip or two. It’s little stuff, it’s easy stuff but it can translate to big things in the game and, especially, making it to the next level,” Gryba said.
“First things first, he’s in the gym this morning before even on the ice. You know sketching up, loosening up, doing his preparation before hitting the ice and then he’s doing a cool-down after the end of practice. That’s stuff that we harp on these guys,” Love said.
“But sometimes listening to the coach every day isn’t exactly something they want to listen to so for them to actually see a pro doing it, maybe then, coach is right sometimes.”
The New Jersey Devils signed the defenceman to a one-year, two-way contract on July 1.
“Obviously it’ll be different playing in a U.S. market, but obviously a great organization with a storied history so I’m excited to go down there,” Gryba said.
“(The Devils) had a great year last year and I’m sure they’re all, the coaching staff and management, are looking to play off that and have another good year.”
The blue-liner has appeared in 279 regular-season NHL games and 13 playoff games between 2012 and 2018 with the Ottawa Senators and Edmonton Oilers, recording 393 penalty minutes and 43 points.
Gryba played two seasons with the Saskatoon Contacts of the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League, winning the 2005 Telus Cup and being named the top defenceman at the national championship.
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