Montreal Canadiens Sven Andrighetto Stepping Up Offensively
The Montreal Canadiens have placed Sven Andrighetto on waivers this season and sent him to the minors multiple times. He is now showing he belongs in the National Hockey League.
The Montreal Canadiens have been forced to deal with several injuries this season. With a plethora of veteran forwards out of the lineup, young players from the minor leagues have been given the chance to show what they can do at the NHL level.
Sven Andrighetto is one of those players. He started the season with the Canadiens, but was almost immediately placed on waivers and sent to the St. John’s Ice Caps. After playing 44 games with the club last season, it was expected he would be a regular this year.
However, after struggling through a tough training camp, the Swiss winger was deemed expendable and made available to the entire league for nothing. I think it says a lot about the uncertainty he could score at the NHL level that he was not claimed by anyone.
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Scoring in the American Hockey League was never a problem. The 23-year-old had 23 points in 26 games with the Ice Caps last season. He has scored 22 points in 20 games on “The Rock” this year. The trouble was bringing that scoring to the Canadiens.
In his 44 games last season, he scored seven goals and 17 points. Not bad numbers for a guy in his first real stint with an NHL team, but evidently not enough to guarantee a roster spot this season either.
Andrighetto making good after third call up this season
Andrighetto was finally brought up on November 10th to play against the Los Angeles Kings. He was given four games, held scoreless and plunked back down to the minor leagues. That would be just his first stint with the Habs this season.
He was brought back up about a month later, played four more games, had two assists in a 10-1 rout of the Colorado Avalanche. It wasn’t enough to keep him around long term and he was once again an Ice Cap. His NHL stat line read eight games, zero goals and two points.
The third round pick in 2013 was given a third chance when injuries continued to pile up in January. The third time is the charm, they say. Now, in his last eight games, he has scored two goals and five points.
He’s not exactly leading the team in points at this pace, but it’s good to see Andrighetto finally bringing some offence. He’s always done it at every other level, so to see that translate to the NHL is a great sign for the Swiss winger.
Andrighetto started scoring as soon as he was given offensive linemates
It’s probably no coincidence that as soon as Andrighetto was given a shot with offensive players, he started to produce. He played the last few games with Alex Galchenyuk and Andrew Shaw. Galchenyuk was replaced last night by Brian Flynn due to injury.
No offence to those plugging away on the Habs fourth line, but when Andrighetto was playing there earlier in the year, it didn’t really suit his strengths. He’s an undersized, but highly skilled forward, so he needs other skilled players in order to operate.
Many teams have a tendency to put their call ups on their fourth line. This makes sense if that call up is Bobby Farnham, not so much when it’s Andrighetto. The reason he was called up in the first place is because he is averaging more than a point per game in the AHL.
Giving him a similar role in the NHL seems to be just what he needed to start scoring at this level. With Brendan Gallagher likely out a few more weeks, Andrighetto has a chance to really solidify himself as a top nine forward in the NHL in the near future.
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There was a time earlier in the season when I would have guessed Andrighetto is nothing more than an AHL scorer. His recent call up is starting to sway that opinion. Perhaps the Candiens will need to make room for him on their second or third line permanently.