KALAMAZOO, Mich. - From skating around in their own backyard rink to keying a storybook season at Western Michigan, Grant and Hampton Slukynsky’s first season playing on the same team is turning heads in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC).
 
Grant, a sophomore forward, and Hampton, a freshman goaltender, are among the Broncos’ 17 newcomers (11 freshmen) that have anchored their breakout 2024-25 campaign. WMU sits third in both national polls, tying a program record, with a 17-4-1 record and 10-1-1 mark in NCHC play. Grant boasts 15 points and ranks third on the team in assists (11), while Hampton is second among all NCAA goalies in goals-against average (1.55) and save percentage (.946).
 
“The first thing that sticks out is how good of people they are,” graduate student captain Tim Washe said. “They are so fun to be around. They’re great teammates, they’re kind and they bring a high compete level. Grant gets better every day, he wants to get better and has the drive to work on little things after practice and they add up. When we’re on the ice with Hampton, we ask each other ‘what do we shoot at on him?’. He takes up so much net, is so quick and makes everything look easy. He is just like his brother and works hard and is an amazing person.”
 
The duo’s journey to get to Kalamazoo was circuitous, but one that is paying dividends to extend their brotherly bond.
 
A Family Tradition on the Ice
 

Grant and Hampton’s hockey journey started immediately at home in Warroad, Minn. In typical fashion in the State of Hockey, their father, Tim, built and maintained an outdoor ice rink in their backyard. A former college hockey player himself at North Dakota and Regina, Tim’s efforts created a convenient option for his young children to try out the sport he loved. His hard work and labor gave the two brothers the hockey bug at a young age.
 
“We never really pushed the kids to take up hockey,” Tim said. “Having the rink around was like having a basketball hoop or swing set to have it as an option to go play. We didn’t have to head out to a rink and risk them maybe getting bored with it, they could just step on the ice and play. They could skate for five minutes or two hours and it didn’t matter because it was just there and I could skate with them. We played a lot out there starting at a young age for them.”
 
With a three-year age gap between the two, a younger brother dynamic grew immediately. Not wanting to be excluded from the exploits of his older brother, Hampton insisted on stepping onto the ice with Grant and his friends. In response, Grant and his friends handed Hampton the goalie pads and volunteered him for goaltending duty. The move set Hampton on a path to embrace one of the toughest positions in sports.
 
“I would have my friends over when I was young and Hampton was three years younger than us so we threw him into the net and his story unfolded from there,” Grant said. “We have fun memories of having all our uncles and cousins out at our rink where we’d sing the national anthem, set up tunnels and have our own tournaments.”

 

“I probably started playing goalie full-time when I was seven or eight,” Hampton said. “My brother and his buddies would be out there and I wanted to play with them. I wasn’t as big or as fast as them so they stuck me in the net and I fell in love with it.”
 
Hockey runs in the Slukynsky family even beyond their home. Three of Grant and Hampton’s uncles, Freddy (Lake Superior State), Chad (Michigan State) and Chris (Dartmouth) also played college hockey, which gave them added perspective on what to expect as they climbed the ranks in the sport.
 
More than the wisdom of their relatives’ experience, Hampton and Grant had each other, and the backyard rink they would use and maintain with their family to learn the sport. They would even have their own makeshift family tournaments.
 
Clark Cup Winners
 
After starring for three seasons for Warroad High School in ‘Hockeytown USA’ and being a Minnesota Mr. Hockey finalist in 2020, Grant headed off to the junior hockey ranks with the Fargo Force.
 
Offense proved harder to come by in the USHL than in high school, where he amassed 199 points (87 goals, 112 assists) in 85 games for the Warriors. Following a five-point campaign with Fargo in 2020-21, he found his footing with the Sioux City Musketeers, where he put up 10 goals and 29 points in the regular season and posted five more in 10 playoff games to help the Musketeers claim the 2022 Clark Cup. He played one more year with Sioux City and notched 21 goals and 27 assists in 61 games, looking poised to take that scoring touch to Northern Michigan to begin his college hockey career.
 

“My first year in Sioux City was a special year and I have a lot of great memories winning that championship,” Grant said.
 
During Grant’s ascent, Hampton also made a name for himself at Warroad High School by dominating in the crease. In three seasons, he went 57-7-3 with 20 shutouts before following in his brother’s footsteps to the USHL with the Fargo Force. Prior to his lone USHL campaign, Hampton heard his name called in the NHL draft when the Los Angeles Kings took him in the fourth round.
 
Like Grant before him, Hampton also captured a Clark Cup in an award-filled USHL rookie season. He backstopped Fargo with a 28-3 record, 1.86 goals against average, .923 save percentage and five shutouts during the 2023-24 campaign, then went 9-3 with a 1.96 GAA and .931 save percentage in the playoffs. His stellar play between the pipes earned him the Dave Peterson USA Hockey Goaltender of the Year award, along with USHL Goaltender of the Year honors. He appeared destined to join his older brother at Northern Michigan.
 
Northern Michigan Curveball
 
While Hampton turned heads at the junior level during the 2023-24 season, Grant adjusted to collegiate competition as a freshman for Northern Michigan. He ranked second among Wildcat freshmen with six goals and nine points while his 141 faceoff wins sat fourth on the team overall.
 
With a college season under Grant’s belt and Hampton signed to join him at NMU, it seemed as though the brothers would get together as teammates for the first time in Marquette. Things took an unexpected turn that summer, however, when the Northern Michigan coaching staff departed in June. With a vacancy at the top level of the program, Grant entered the transfer portal and Hampton joined him in search of a college hockey home.
 
Reunited in Kalamazoo
 
Coming off a school-record third-straight NCAA Tournament appearance, Western Michigan immediately showed interest in the Slukynsky brothers. The Broncos faced the task of replacing eight of their top 11 scorers and were also interested in taking some pressure off returning goaltender Cameron Rowe after he played every second in net for them last year.
 
“The first thing that stood out to us when we got on a Zoom call with them was that they were world-class kids,” Western Michigan head coach Pat Ferschweiler said. “The need was already there, we needed a goalie and we needed a center who could come in and play an important role with us. After speaking with them, we all wanted them in Kalamazoo immediately. It’s been a nice fit for both us and them.”
 
While playing on the same team for the first time in their lives wasn’t necessarily the goal when they started their search, the prospect of doing so in Kalamazoo appealed to them.
 
“We never played together in youth hockey or in high school,” Grant said. “It was one of those things where we thought this was a great opportunity for us to play together, so why not take advantage of the opportunity if it exists. When we got on a Zoom call with Western Michigan, we knew right away that was where we wanted to be.”
 
Being convinced something is a fit over the phone doesn’t always mean reality will match. In this case, the brothers have been instant sensations for WMU. Grant posted five points in his first three games as a Bronco and has four multi-point performances this year.

 

Hampton has allowed two goals or fewer in seven of his nine starts and has yet to yield more than three tallies in any outing. He is also coming off his first collegiate shutout in his last start against Miami and is a two-time NCHC Rookie of the Week. In addition to his on-campus performance, Hampton also represented Team USA in the 2025 World Junior Championship, going 2-0 and helping the squad earn its second-straight gold medal.
 
The duo’s individual contributions have meshed with the team amidst a storybook season for the Broncos. After finishing sixth in the NCHC standings last year, WMU is leading the league with 30 points this season. With 12 games remaining, WMU is aiming to secure its first regular season conference title since 1975 and its first as a Division I program.
 
“We want our habits to stay strong and keep doing things right,” Washe said. “The games keep getting bigger and bigger. We like where we’re at, but we want to keep building from here. There are still a lot of games left and anything can happen, so we need to stay focused.”
 
The best teams have leadership up and down their roster, and it doesn’t take a letter sewn on a jersey to be a leader. That has proven especially true for Grant in his first year in Kalamazoo.
 
“Both of them have shown great leadership skills with their work ethic,” Ferschweiler said. “We view Grant as a possible captain going forward because of the impact he makes on and off the ice. They are never satisfied with being good, they are chasing great every day.”
 

From sharing a rink in their Warroad home backyard to sharing one at Lawson Ice Arena, the Slukynsky brothers’ bond has been a constant in their lives. The pair have always leaned on each other at home, and now that continues in college with the two living together as roommates.
 
“As the younger brother, I always wanted to do what my older brother was doing,” Hampton said. “Every time he’s played I wanted to follow in his footsteps. He was always a big influence on me and he still is today.”
 
The Broncos take their six-game winning streak on the road Friday night when they open a two-game series at Colorado College at 9 p.m. ET with the game televised nationally on CBS Sports Network. Saturday’s series finale starts at 8 p.m. ET and can be seen on NCHC.tv, as well as these select Gray Media TV stations.