Regan vs. Rockets: Max Graham

In a new series, Regan vs. Rockets, RocketFAN.ca’s Regan Bartel has some casual chats with past and current players of the Kelowna Rockets.

This week, he spoke with forward Max Graham.

Regan: So, Max, a lot of people always ask, what are hockey players doing during the off season? They probably don’t throw axes do they?

Max: No, no, not normally. I think lately I've just been hanging around home, working out a little bit, trying to get on the ice as much as I can. And yeah, just trying to prepare for next season.

R: So right now it’s forest fire season, and your dad's out fighting forest fires because he owns a helicopter company, right?

M: Yeah, he is. Right now he's up north just working on the forest fires and, he's been gone for quite a while. The forest fires aren't to get up there right now. So he's up there working and just trying to get it all under control.

R: And you’re still working on getting your pilot license, is that right?

M: I am, yeah. I'm working on getting my helicopter license. Maybe one day I'll be out there fighting the forest fires, too. We’ll see.

R: How much time do you take off between the end of the season and training again? How long did you let your body recoup?

M: I think it's kind of different for everyone this year. I took about a month off just from everything. Went on a family vacation down to Vegas for a little bit. We caught one of the Golden Knights games and then started to get back into the gym at the start of this month.

R: So you'll be skating again, right? I mean, you take very little time off before you get back at it.

M: Yeah, it was a couple months off, so I hadn't skated since my last playoff game against Seattle. I started to get back on the ice last week actually.

R: And you got to watch the Memorial Cup. You were in Kamloops for a bit?

M: Yeah. I went to one of the games there when Kamloops and Seattle were playing. It was good to watch Dacher [Colton Dach] knowing a couple of guys out there. But, yeah, it was a good game.

R: Is it neat to just sit back there and be a spectator or do you say to yourself, 'man, I'd love to play!'

M: I mean, yeah, it's definitely cool to watch the Memorial Cup as a fan, but I mean, any player would love to play there. I was kind of wishing I was out there.

R: If there's a teammate on the current roster that you would not want to have an axe in his hand, who would that be?

M: Logan Peskett. I'd be a bit scared around him. But actually, I probably would trust everybody, but I'll give him a bit of a hard time.

R: Of your teammates, who else would be decent at this?

M: I think John Babcock would be pretty good. He loves to swing the axe whenever we're having campfires or something like that. So he'd probably be pretty good.

Check out the video to see who came out on top in the axe throwing. Big thanks to Axe Monkeys for having us over!