Teams swap 23-year-old offensive wingers
The New Jersey Devils and Minnesota Wild announced they have swapped two AHL forwards, with the Wild sending Adam Beckman to the Devils in exchange for Graeme Clarke.
The 23-year-old Clarke led the Comets in goals this season with 25, finishing with 49 points in 67 games. He went pointless in three NHL games.
Also 23 years old, Beckman finished fourth on Iowa in scoring with 19 goals and 33 points in 51 games. He had two assists in 11 games with Minnesota in the NHL.
Clarke has 149 points in 218 career AHL games while Beckman has 108 in 181 career games.
Both players were third round picks in 2019, Beckman going 75th overall, Clarke 80th. Both were talented offensive players coming out of junior hockey, Beckman won WHL Player of The Year and led the league in points in 2019-20, while Clarke won the Hlinka Gretzky Cup Gold Medal his rookie year in the OHL.
Both players are pending restricted free agents and get a fresh start with a new organization after it appeared neither player was going to breakthrough and play regular NHL minutes with their old organizations.
Clarke joins a Minnesota team who are once again facing a cap crunch this season due to their buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. They will be looking for cheap offense that Clarke can provide with an excellent shot.
Beckman has 20 more games of NHL experience between the two and will look to crack the Devils lineup under new Head Coach Sheldon Keefe.
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