- Jun 24, 2012
- 83,878
- 151,091
It's too bad that Olofsson's career was derailed by injuries. Hope he does well in Montreal. Did Reilly ever catch on there?
Big fan of this trade; Bitten is what the Wild need. A tenacious, hard-nose right winger that can fill in for depth. And it gets rid of the headache that is Olofsson, who could never stay healthy to develop into nothing more than Prosser's jockstrap.
Looking into his injury history, seems to be quite extensive.
From an article dated June 26th 2017:
Olofsson likely would have stuck on the NHL roster sooner had it not been for a series of injuries, which included a torn labrum in both of his shoulders as well as a minor medial collateral ligament sprain in his right knee during the Traverse City Prospect Tournament last summer (2016)
Wild sign prospect Gustav Olofsson to two-year contract
And then this:
Olofsson was taken 46th overall in the NHL Entry Draft coming off a stellar season in the USHL for the Green Bay Gamblers (23 points in 63 games, +11 rating) which resulted in him playing in the NHL/AHL top prospects game that year and catching the eyes of Minnesota’s scouts.
Following the draft, Olofsson spent one season at Colorado College before signing an entry level deal with the Minnesota Wild and making the jump to the AHL. He played 8 games in Iowa to finish that year, and scored a goal in his AHL debut.
His professional career got off to a terrible start in his first season at Iowa, as he injured his shoulder in the first game of the season (his third such shoulder injury of his young career), which required surgery and caused him to miss the entire year of hockey
Entering training camp the following year, Olofsson impressed all of the coaching staff and had a real chance to make the Minnesota Wild roster as a 20 year old. He got a brief taste of regular season action in November 2015, but spent the rest of the season in Iowa again before requiring another shoulder surgery in February. His fourth major shoulder injury of his career.
Olofsson rehabbed that injury quickly, and was ready for training camp in fall 2016. Again impressive in camp, Olofsson sprained his MCL in a preseason game which cost him an opportunity to secure an NHL spot and was left in Iowa to start the year.
He impressed in Iowa through the 2016-17 season, recording 24 points in 59 games and earning 13 games at the NHL level with Minnesota where he managed 3 points at the NHL Level. His season was again cut short, though, with an undisclosed upper body injury suffered in March while with Minnesota.
2017-18 was truly meant to be the season of Gustav Olofsson. He made the Minnesota Wild roster out of camp following a season mostly injury free, beating out Kyle Quincey for the 6th defense spot. The return of Nate Prosser in November made for a more crowded team and Olofsson spent the rest of the year battling with Mike Reilly and Ryan Murphy for ice time.
In March, he was again struck by the injury bug as he lost time to a concussion at the worst time.
Minnesota Wild: 2018-19 Season Preview of Gustav Olofsson
Is it a stretch to believe that Minnesota decided to cut their losses and only made him available on account of so many major injuries suffered by Olofsson in such a short time? Four major shoulder injuries (including a torn labrum in each shoulder that required surgeries)? Followed by a lesser injury like the sprained MCL, however, there was that undisclosed upper body injury in March 2017 -- it was serious enough to cut his season short. And in March 2018, a concussion.
Is there more to his injury history than the above? Given the above alone, Minnesota wins the trade just on account of getting a healthy body back.