Saturday, January 5, 2013

Bulls add Graovac in trade with 67's

Press Release

BELLEVILLE, ON - For the second time this season, the Belleville Bulls have acquired a player of significant value from the division rival Ottawa 67's. After trading for blueliner Jake Cardwell on November 11th, Bulls Head Coach and General Manager George Burnett has announced Saturday morning that the two clubs have made another swap.

Coming to Belleville is 19 year-old centreman Tyler Graovac in exchange for Russian winger Sergey Kuptsov, a 2nd round pick in 2014, Niagara's 3rd round selection in 2015 and a conditional Peterborough 7th round pick in 2014.

Graovac was a seventh round draft selection of the Minnesota Wild in 2011 and has 21 goals, 14 assists and 35 points in 30 games this season. The 6 foot 4, 203Ib. native of Brampton also has five powerplay goals and two shorthanded markers on the campaign.

"We've had the opportunity to add a talented, well established forward to our lineup," said Burnett of the addition.

After an impressive start to the season that saw Graovac with points in 10 of his first 13 games including 14 goals to place him atop the OHL leaderboards, he was sidelined for six games due to injury. Following his recovery, Graovac participated in the National Junior Selection Camp in Calgary and has also represented the OHL in the Subway Super Series in the past two seasons.

"Graovac brings intangibles to our lineup as one of the league's best centremen in the faceoff circle and has shown an ability to put the puck in the net with five multi-goal games this year including a pair of hat-tricks," Burnett added.

Kuptsov, who was acquired from the Mississauga Steelheads over the summer will head to Ottawa having played 33 games, recording 6 goals and 8 assists. He'll join the 67's on the road in Barrie and Brampton this weekend.




 (Nathan can be reached at nathanfournier@mainehockeyjournal.com)

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