Torrey Mitchell ended up being a smart investment for the Montreal Canadiens. The team celebrated America’s Thanksgiving by dealing away the 32-year-old center. They sent him to the Los Angeles Kings, and in exchange got a conditional 2018 fifth-round pick. If the Kings make the postseason this year, the pick becomes a fourth rounder. The conditions actually see the Canadiens own fourth-round pick returned to them if the Kings make the playoffs. The Kings own the Canadiens 2018 fourth-round pick after last year’s Dwight King trade.
Torrey Mitchell Dealt to the Los Angeles Kings for a Conditional Fifth Round Pick
In the spring of 2015, the Canadiens sent away Jack Nevins and a seventh-round pick to the Buffalo Sabres for Mitchell. Nevins had gone completely pointless in the AHL that season and still hasn’t even played a full AHL season to date. The pick is looking like a typical seventh-round gamble, Vasili Glotov. He is now 20-years-old and still looking like a junior aged project. He has 14 points in 21 games with the Shawinigan Cataractes this season.
174 games and 37 points later, the Habs flipped Mitchell for a conditional pick from the Kings. Mitchell was an off and on bottom-six forward for the Canadiens. He has played at least 70 games in each of the last two seasons. He never broke over 20 points, though, reaching a high of 19 in 71 games in his first full year after the trade.
While Mitchell was a trusted fourth line centre and penalty killer when Michel Therrien was the Habs head coach. He has seen his role diminish under Claude Julien. Even when he does play, he is often used on the wing, instead of at centre.
Mitchell had a rough start to this season. He has only dressed for 11 of the team’s 23 games. He didn’t have a single point. Even his +/- rating is a flat zero in the stats column. Mitchell’s only tangible statistic is a two-minute minor penalty. Considering the team’s unsuccessful start to the year, and the fact that Mitchell is not a Julien favorite, this re-coups an asset for the Canadiens and leaves room for a call-up of a younger player. The Habs are expected to make such a move before Saturday’s home game against the Buffalo Sabres.
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