Hilliard Graves

Hilliard Graves
Date of birth	October 18, 1950
place of birth	Saint John , New Brunswick , Canada
size	180 cm
Weight	79 kg
position	Right wing
Shot hand	Right
Career stations
1968-1970	Charlottetown Islanders
1970-1971	California Golden Seals Providence Reds
1971-1972	Baltimore Clippers
1972-1974	California Golden Seals
1974-1976	Atlanta Flames
1976-1979	Vancouver Canucks
1979-1980	New Brunswick Hawks Winnipeg Jets

Hilliard Donald Graves (born October 18, 1950 in Saint John , New Brunswick ) is a retired Canadian ice hockey player who played 558 games for the California Golden Seals , Atlanta Flames , Vancouver Canucks and Winnipeg Jets between 1968 and 1980 has played in the National Hockey League on the position of right winger .

Career

Graves, who in Saint John in the province of New Brunswick was born, spent his youth from 1968 to 1970 to Prince Edward Iceland in Charlotte Islanders in the Maritime Junior A Hockey League . With the team, the striker took part in the prestigious Memorial Cup in 1970 , where the striker scored 21 points in 15 games . To qualify for the same, the Islanders had won the championship of their league in advance. Graves had also contributed 21 points in twelve playoff games.

Since Graves was not selected in any NHL amateur draft , signed the California Golden Seals from the National Hockey League as a free agent after completing his junior years. He spent the beginning of the season commuting between the roster of the Golden Seals in the NHL and their farm team , the Providence Reds , from the American Hockey League . After a total of 30 missions, his rookie season ended prematurely due to an injury. About the Baltimore Clippers from the AHL, the winger fought his way back into the NHL squad of the Southern California NHL franchise , to whose regular squad he belonged with the beginning of the NHL 1972/73 in the season after his injury . In his first full season, he reached on the side of ivan boldirev and Gary Croteau remarkable 52 points scorer, followed by a weaker year with 29. The break finally led to Graves in July 1974 in exchange for John Stewart to the Atlanta Flames was given .

With the Flames, the attacker found a new sporting home for the following two and a half seasons. Although he did not reach the mark of 30 scorer points again in the 1974/75 season , he paid back the trust placed in him with 49 points in the 1975/76 game year . Nevertheless, the attacker's time in Atlanta ended in December 1976 when he was transferred to the Vancouver Canucks together with Larry Carrière in December 1976 . In return, the Canadians gave John Gould and a second-round vote in the 1977 NHL Amateur Draft to the Flames. In Vancouver, Graves ended the season and again reached over 40 points. Also in the 1977/78 season , the Canadian demonstrated his offensive qualities when he again scored over 40 points and cracked the 20 goal mark for the second time in his NHL career.

Towards the end of the 1978/79 season , however, Graves' time in Vancouver came to a quick end. He was deported to the New Brunswick Hawks farm team , where he ended the season. In the subsequent NHL Expansion Draft in 1979 due to the inclusion of some World Hockey Association teams in the NHL, Graves remained unprotected by the Canucks, after which he was selected by the Winnipeg Jets . For this he played - in addition to appearances for the New Brunswick Hawks in the AHL and the Tulsa Oilers in the Central Hockey League  - a total of 35 games before he declared his career ended in the summer of 1980 at the age of 29.

Achievements and Awards

• 1970 Maritime Junior A Hockey League win with the Charlottetown Islanders

Career statistics

				Regular season						Play-offs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM
1968/69	Charlottetown Islanders	MJrHL		38	16	26th	42	69		14th	10	13	23	26th
1969/70	Charlottetown Islanders	MJrHL		42	32	65	97	55		12	8th	13	21st	11
1970	Charlottetown Islanders	Memorial Cup								15th	5	16	21st	19th
1970/71	California Golden Seals	NHL		14th	0	0	0	0		-	-	-	-	-
1970/71	Providence Reds	AHL		16	3	1	4th	11		-	-	-	-	-
1971/72	Baltimore Clippers	AHL		76	14th	18th	32	67		18th	5	4th	9	33
1972/73	California Golden Seals	NHL		75	27	25th	52	34		-	-	-	-	-
1973/74	California Golden Seals	NHL		64	11	18th	29	48		-	-	-	-	-
1974/75	Atlanta Flames	NHL		67	10	19th	29	30th		-	-	-	-	-
1975/76	Atlanta Flames	NHL		80	19th	30th	49	16		2	0	0	0	0
1976/77	Atlanta Flames	NHL		25th	8th	5	13	17th		-	-	-	-	-
1976/77	Vancouver Canucks	NHL		54	10	20th	30th	17th		-	-	-	-	-
1977/78	Vancouver Canucks	NHL		80	21st	26th	47	18th		-	-	-	-	-
1978/79	Vancouver Canucks	NHL		62	11	15th	26th	14th		-	-	-	-	-
1978/79	New Brunswick Hawks	AHL		18th	8th	15th	23	22nd		5	4th	5	9	10
1979/80	Winnipeg Jets	NHL		35	1	5	6th	15th		-	-	-	-	-
1979/80	Tulsa Oilers	CHL		5	2	3	5	2		-	-	-	-	-
1979/80	New Brunswick Hawks	AHL		16	3	6th	9	5		17th	8th	6th	14th	4th
MJrHL total				80	48	91	139	124		26th	18th	26th	44	37
AHL total				126	28	40	68	105		40	17th	15th	32	47
NHL overall				556	118	163	281	209		2	0	0	0	0

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; ¹  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

• Hilliard Graves at legendsofhockey.net (English)
• Hilliard Graves at eliteprospects.com (English)