Ivan Grovnikov

[McLean Hoover 19]

March 15, 2025

Gravenhurst Ontario. 
 

A young Ivan Grovnikov is born to his mother and father. Growing up with hockey and always putting the team first ahead of personal accomplishment. 
 

“it’s in my nature really, having two immigrant parents and no one around me who understood my accent was difficult at first. But when you hit the ice and you’re all wearing the same jersey and trying to accomplish the same goal you feel a sense of community and I cherish that.” Said Grovnikov. 
 

and it is true “Grover” as his friends call him was born in the GTA, but grew up in small town of Gravenhurst. His mother and father both being from Russia and immigrating to Canada before he was born gave him the opportunity to live the Canadian dream and play Ice Hockey which to his parents felt close to home. 

Although at time Grover spoke of the difficulties being “different” in small town. Some of which included not knowing anyone when everyone is very tight knit within small community but he also has this to say.

“I remember plenty of times the looks you get for having an accent, it doesn’t bother you if you don’t pay attention but then you realize if you were somewhere else in the world they’d be the ones who seemed different so then it’s just an outsider complex, hockey does help close the gap for me.” 

Grover is not known to be a fighter but will always standup for a teammate on the ice. 

“last year I can remember a moment where my Right Winger went down and was slow to get back up, there was scrum happening but oddly enough the guy that hurt him was the only guy skating away from it all. That just doesn’t fly in my opinion, so I skate towards him and give him a shove. Let’s just say we get into it and to this day I’m not sure if I even hurt him too bad or not, but I do know how much it meant to my team to see me get in there without hesitation.” 
 

And as for his teammates perspective on him one had this to say. 
 

“Grover has always been a leader within our locker room whether he’s held the “C” or not, he’s never asked for captaincy or complained about minutes. I think for him he knows that an assist means he helped get a goal and scoring means he helped get an assist to one of us. He’s always more happy after games where we score.” 
 

Now for Grover, the time has come to enter the big leagues as he was waiver claimed for S99 of the VHLM by the Ottawa Lynx. 
 

“I’m hoping to stay on path to grow as a player, learning from my teammates and GM will be something important for me to continue doing in this league to ensure I grow to be a valuable VHL player later in my career so for me it’s about building the foundation to a good house at the moment. But Individually I’m hoping to just work in my conditioning, maintaining the standards I’ve always held myself to. But finally I’d say I’m most excited to experience Ottawa and its culture as I have never lived In Canadas great capital.” 

“it’s funny though, throughout my life it always feel like resetting in some ways. One moment I’m the captain in our youth league, then you’re a rookie in junior. You climb to be a leader there and the cycle continues. But it’s strange this time around it feels different. I’m the rookie heading into this season but eventually going from this league to the VHL will be the last climb I make for the rest of my career. I’m not sure if everyone thinks of it that way or not but I’ve always found it crazy to think about my life from start to till now.” 
 

Grover is just one of two centres at the time of this writing for the Ottawa Lynx so he will step right into an important role and hopefully be able to continue the upwards trajectory the team is aiming for. 

 

In a more light hearted note we asked Grover something completely unrelated to hockey. 

 

“If I heard you right you asked me what video games I’ve been into? For me I’d say Overwatch easy, been playing it since they released it but they added a huge update not too long ago and I’ve been vining with it a lot.” 

 

Ivan Grovnikov certainly has a lot to prove entering the league as a waiver pickup having not even been drafted this season so this season is a massive opportunity to raise his draft stock and make a name for himself in the VHLM. 
 

Only time will tell once S99 of the VHLM starts.