Canadiens Trade Andrighetto to Avalanche for Martinsen

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The Montreal Canadiens have traded forward Sven Andrighetto to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Colorado Avalanche forward Andreas Martinsen, the Canadiens announced Wednesday. The deal comes after the Canadiens have been busy making other moves at the deadline to revamp their team en route to a playoff run.

The Canadiens are trading away the 23-year-old Andrighetto who they selected with the 86th overall pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. In 27 games this season, Andrighetto has scored two goals and eight points at the NHL level. While playing with the St. John’s IceCaps in the AHL, however, Andrighetto has scored eight goals and 22 points in 20 games. As the Canadiens look to solidify their roster, they would have had to risk putting Andrighetto on waivers to send him down to the AHL again this season. As such, this move looks indicative of the fact that Andrighetto wasn’t penciled into the Canadiens’ playoff plans. The Swiss forward is a pending restricted free agent at the end of the season.

Size and Experience

The 26-year-old Martinsen is slated to be a free agent at the end of the season but provides some extra size to the Canadiens roster. In 55 games this season, Martinsen has scored three goals and seven points while average 9:38 of ice time per game this season in Colorado. He has also compiled 146 hits and 32 penalty minutes this season, giving the Canadiens some more size to add to their other new additions, including Jordie Benn, Brandon Davidson, Steve Ott and Dwight King.

In his career, Martinsen has skated in 110 NHL games, scoring seven goals and 18 points in that time. With his $640,000 contract coming off the books at the end of this season, this deal looks like one that simply reflects the Canadiens preferring having Martinsen as an option than the more skilled Andrighetto in a bottom-six role.

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