Grønvold the Gritty Greenlander

[VattghernCZ 1,061]

Alagsantere Grønvold (alt. spelling: Groenvold) is one of the latest standouts from the Greenland Youth Academy and one of the two Greenlanders recently joining the VHLM. You can find more information about Grønvold, where he comes from, and who he is in the following interview.

 

 

Hello Alagsantere, happy to have you here.

"Hello, and thank you for your invitation.

Just call me Santy; it may save us some time."

 

Alright, Santy, let's get started. Tell us a little bit about your family and where you come from.

"No problem. I was born in Paamiut. It's a really secluded harbor town in southwestern Greenland. It is so secluded, in fact, that there are no roads leading there. You can sail there via the Arctic Umiaq Line, or you can fly to Nuuk; the flight takes about 40 minutes. I never knew my mother; sadly, she passed away when I was born. I never knew her parents, either. I grew up with my father. He was a fisherman and a seal hunter, just like pretty much everyone in Paamiut. You can't do much more there. So naturally, my paternal grandparents were of the same trade."

 

I'm sorry about your loss. Paamiut sounds like…quite a place. I hope it's not too sensitive of a topic, but I've heard you were raised by adoptive parents; would you be willing to share how this came to pass?

"Yes, Paamiut is definitely one of the places in the world. Just say it; it's a s***hole. It's alright. I was 7 years old when my father’s fishing boat didn't come back. One of his crewmates was later found on an emergency raft. According to his testimony, the Kraken had sunk my father's ship. I know it's not the only ship it has sunk. That's why I'm starting to study cryptozoology remotely. After I'm done with my hockey career, I'm going to find the Kraken. And I'm going to hunt it down. Anyway, my grandparents were too poor to take care of me, so I ended up in the Nuuk orphanage. Wann Kerr and his Polish wife Marzena then adopted me because dad is shooting blanks. Hey, those are mom’s words! So I moved to Vancouver to live with them."

 

Those are interesting pieces of information about some VHL players. Maybe more than we needed, but thanks for sharing anyway! What was growing up in Vancouver like, compared to Paamiut?

"I don't remember that much from my early childhood. But you can imagine that those are two completely different worlds. Obviously, the biggest changes for me were having two parents and the language. I had to learn English pretty quickly. In Paamiut, I would always go to my grandparents after school, play with some toys, and wait for my father to pick me up. Then I'd go to bed. In Vancouver, suddenly, a whole new world of possibilities opened. Videogames? Internet? Movies? Sports? You name it. It was pretty overwhelming at first. But kids are good at handling changes, I guess."

 

I can only imagine what a change it must have been. You mentioned sport; were you always drawn to hockey, or is your interest in hockey your adoptive father’s doing?

"Kind of both. I was a really athletic kid, going to the gym or going swimming after school pretty much every day, going running with my mom every morning, stuff like that. But I wasn't really into team sports. Sure, I would go to my dad’s home game every now and then—when he was playing in Vancouver—and I liked the speed of hockey. But I couldn't see myself playing it. And then Brian Payne joined the Wolves. The combination of speed and the utter violence in his game fascinated me. You know, my dad is soft. I guess I just needed to watch a tougher player closely to realize that's what I wanted to do. A season after Brian joined the Wolves, I joined the BC Bulldogs."

 

But as far as I know, you're coming here from the Greenland Youth Academy, not from a Canadian bantam league. So what has been your hockey journey like so far?

"Well, it's been hard for me to play the bantam. I said I fell in love with hockey after watching Brian Payne destroy his opponents. Well, the coaches in youth hockey do a great job discouraging physicality. They just don't want a bunch of literal kids beating the hell out of each other. I was trying to model my game after Brian, which didn't sit well with them. I was getting benched or ejected from games all the time. It led to fights with coaches and eventually to me being cut from the team, and no other team would let me join them with such a reputation. So instead, dad signed me up at the Greenland Youth Academy. As a kid, I didn't even know they played hockey in Nuuk! But apparently, it's been one of the best development programs in the world lately. During my 4 years, I saw players like Løvstrøm, Thorvaldsson, or Tano graduate. It was really difficult progress, but eventually Youre Not Fucking Retiring and I rose to the top of our class, and here we are."

 

I must say I am mighty impressed. Most of the players here have played hockey since elementary school, but you were able to get to this level with only—if I'm counting properly—6 years of development. That's quite something. Unfortunately, that's all we have time for. So thank you for your time, and I wish you good luck in the draft and a lot of success in your career!

"Thank you! I certainly hope my career will be more successful than my dad's; I wouldn't hear the end of it otherwise!"

[Tate 450]

3 hours ago, VattghernCZ said:

After I'm done with my hockey career, I'm going to find the Kraken. And I'm going to hunt it down.

 

[VattghernCZ 1,061]

3 minutes ago, Tate said:

 

The little octopus(sy) stands no chance

[Daniel Janser 2,217]

Are you going to name your Kraken hunting vessel 'Pequod'?