The Montreal Canadiens made their final roster decision and chose to waive Sven Andrighetto. There were better choices than potentially losing a young, skilled winger for nothing in return.
The Montreal Canadiens had to make one final roster decision with defenseman Jeff Petry coming off the injured reserve in time for tomorrow night’s game. They had a tough decision to make, but placing Sven Andrighetto on waivers was certainly the wrong one.
Montreal currently has 14 forwards and eight defenders on their roster (including Andrighetto) and needed to waive or trade one of them before tomorrow when Petry will return to the lineup.
The obvious choices for being demonted would be one of the three players who watched the Habs opening night victory over the Buffalo Sabres from the press box. Andrighetto was joined by Brian Flynn and defensemen Zach Redmond as healthy scratches in last night’s 4-1 victory. With Petry returning, it would stand to reason that Redmond is now the eighth defenseman on the depth chart.
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Redmond however, had a great training camp and could be bumped up to the seventh defender if rookie Mikhail Sergachev is eventually sent back to the Windsor Spitfires this season. With the plethora of injuries Montreal went through last season, I think it would be wise to keep eight NHL ready defenders on the roster for now.
This may mean Redmond sits out for a while, but depth on the blue line is always in demand and the Canadiens were wise to keep Redmond on the roster, even as the eighth guy.
In deciding to place Andrighetto on waivers, the Habs are willing to lose a 23 year old winger who was just a shade under a point per game in the American Hockey League last season.
The native of Switzerland didn’t have the best training camp, but suited up in 44 games with the Canadiens last season, scoring seven goals and 17 points. The third round pick in the 2013 draft moved up and down the lineup, and looked to have a solid chance to become a third or even second line right winger in the near future.
However, with the Canadiens signing Alex Radulov and trading for Andrew Shaw, their depth chart on the right side got much deeper over the summer. This pushed Andrighetto to the sidelines for game one, and evidently off the roster by game two of the season.
To give up on a young, skilled forward just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Andrighetto didn’t lead the NHL in points last season, but he had stretches of games where he absolutely looked like a top six NHL forward.
To give up on him after a mediocre training camp at the age of 23, is very shortsighted of the Canadiens management team.
This leaves Brian Flynn as the Habs 13th forward, and it would have made far more sense for the team to put the veteran on waivers instead of Andrighetto. Flynn played 51 games with Montreal last season and scored four goals and ten points.
He is a veteran of 224 NHL games with the Canadiens and Sabres, but what he brings to the team is easily replaceable. A recall of Michael McCarron, Charles Hudon, Stefan Matteau or Jacob de la Rose could fill in for Flynn without a drop in production.
If Andrighetto continues to develop offensively, as many 23 year olds do, what he brings is not nearly as easy to replace. However, the Canadiens felt they needed to keep Flynn around.
The frustrating thing is, Flynn would certainly pass through waivers and could be brought back in the future if injuries necessitated such a move. He could even bring a veteran presence to a young AHL team in St. John’s for the time being.
Andrighetto on the other hand, will be of interest to teams around the NHL. The Sabres are missing an entire line of top six players with Jack Eichel and Evander Kane out long term and newcomer Kyle Okposo on the shelf as well.
Andrighetto got to watch the Habs season opener from the press box in Buffalo. He could very well be suiting up for the Sabres by the end of the weekend. If not Buffalo, I’m sure there will be another NHL team who will be interested in a 23 year old winger with great speed and offensive instincts who can be had for nothing more than a $650,000 cap hit.