The NHL offseason, and therefore trade season, has arrived. The Minnesota Wild traded forward Tyler Graovac to the Washington Capitals for a fifth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, General Manager Chuck Fletcher announced on Wednesday.
The 24-year old Graovac played in 52 games for the Wild this past season, scoring seven goals and two assists. He also tallied 15 points (10 goals, five assists) for the Iowa Wild in the American Hockey League.
The Wild drafted the 6-foot-5 Ontario native in the seventh round in 2011. He made his NHL debut in 2014-15, seeing time in three games. He was injured in the Wild’s season opener the next year and had bilateral core muscle repair surgery. He played two games in 2015-16.
Graovac was another player that bounced from Iowa to Minnesota a bit. Both Fletcher and Wild coach Bruce Boudreau had expressed their disappointment with Graovac’s play last season, according to the Star Tribune.
Last June, the Wild re-signed Graovac, a restricted free agent at the time, to a two-year deal for a two-way contract this past season and a one-way contract in 2017-18 for $650,000.
In other Wild news:
The Minneapolis Star Tribune also reports the Wild tendered qualifying offers to some of their restricted free agents: Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter, Erik Haula, Gustav Olofsson and Mike Reilly.
