It’s no secret that Tyler Graovac is struggling to find a consistent NHL game. He’s in the throes of a 14 game scoreless streak with no end in sight, and if it continues the Minnesota Wild may have no other option but to look to the trade market to take his place in the lineup.
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Before this season started the Minnesota Wild struggled with coming up with the players who would fill the four lines of forwards they needed. Talk of brining in another forward or two in free-agency after the signings of Eric Staal and Chris Stewart seemed like a necessity as much of the Wild’s young talent were showing they were not quite up to the task of everyday NHL action.
Still there was a sense that the Wild had a failsafe of sorts in the form of center Tyler Graovac. Graovac seemed to be a lock on paper because of his ability make the NHL roster out of the previous season’s training camp. He was recovered from the sport hernia injury that eventually led to him staying in Iowa for the remainder of the 2015-16 campaign, and it just seemed as if he was poised to do it again and make the Minnesota roster out of this season’s camp.
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Alas Grao did not have a great camp and did very little to impress his new head coach. Bruce Boudreau told Michael Russo that Graovac really didn’t show him anything during training camp. So much so that Graovac landed back in Iowa to wonder if he’d ever make it back to the NHL.
Hard work and some determination paid off for Grao as he only spent 6 games with Iowa recording 4 points (3 goals and 1 assist), and quickly saw a call-up back to St. Paul. He came out swinging recording a goal in his NHL season debut against the Stars on October 29th, and recorded two more goals this season to include his first NHL game winner on December 17th against Arizona.
Since then though Graovac has been ice cold with no points in 14 games. Scoring has not been his only issue as his plus/minus since then has been a -3 and he’s only at a mediocre 52.6% in the faceoff circle during that stretch. All that considered is why Boudreau made the decision to make him a healthy scratch his past weekend against Anaheim.
Graovac’s troubles seem to have no end in sight. And while his coach gives him a slight boost of confidence by saying he just needs to be responsible and not get scored on, everyone seems to know that the Wild need more from him down the stretch. Not to mention he’s still getting scored on when he’s out there.
The impact to the team is actually pretty big as the Wild start to eye a big playoff run. With virtually no one to take his place on the roster right now and the looming possibility of injury, if Graovac doesn’t improve it could force the Wild to trade for an experienced and reliable center.
There’s possibly a market to do that, but with the Wild’s cap situation so tight the idea of any trade right now is hard to pull off. Not to mention GM Chuck Fletcher has been clear that he’s not really wanting to dismantle his defensive depth, which would be the best place to draw from for a trade.
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Still considering the fact that Graovac is kinda just there will not be enough to boost this team. To win and to have true depth you need to have someone who can at least contribute to his line and make his linemates better. Chris Stewart has shown flashes of solid offense this season, and now Jordan Schroeder is showing more ability to finish. So why not try to go out and acquire someone on that fourth line that makes them even more of a scoring threat and elevates Stewart and Schroeder even more?
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No one wants to give up on Graovac, but as far as we’ve seen this season he might need some more seasoning before being the player the Wild need. He’s certainly ready to be a depth player in the NHL, but needs more work to be an everyday guy. The Wild will need to realize that soon and work to fix that soon with the trade market being about the only way to do that.