Roster Moves: Rantanen, Price, Harrington, Cramarossa

The Colorado Avalanche have sent prized prospect right winger Mikko Rantanen to San Antonio of the AHL, reports Terry Frei of the Denver Post.  Rantanen suffered an ankle injury in a rookie game back in mid-September and the demotion will essentially work as a rehab stint.  Head coach Jared Bednar commented on the decision to start him with the Rampage:

“He’s missed a lot of meetings where it comes to our structure of our game and what we want to accomplish. He knows lots of it, but he’s also missed lots of it. They’re playing the same system as us down there, so he’ll get a chance to do that and go through game situations, be an impact player for them. Then we’ll re-evaluate and see how he’s feeling after he’s been down there for some games.”

The Avalanche were hoping that Rantanen would be able to start the season in a top six role after leading San Antonio in scoring with 24 goals and 36 assists in just 52 games despite being one of the youngest players in the league.  With this move, it appears that it will be a few more weeks at least before he gets that chance.

Other roster moves on Friday:

• The Montreal Canadiens placed goaltender Carey Price on injured reserve retroactive to Monday, TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reports (Twitter link). Price missed the season opener with the flu and remains at home with no timetable for his return.  The move is primarily procedural as the team was utilizing an emergency recall to have prospect Charlie Lindgren serve as the backup goalie in Buffalo.  That can only last 48 hours so for him to remain on the roster, Price needed to be moved to injured reserve.
• The Columbus Blue Jackets have loaned defenseman Scott Harrington to Cleveland (AHL) on an injury conditioning stint, the AHL team announced. The Jackets acquired the 23 year old from Toronto this offseason in exchange for former first round pick Kerby Rychel.  Harrington will be allowed to spend up to two weeks in the minors on the loan but if Columbus wants to keep him there longer, they must place him on waivers.  If that happens and Harrington is claimed, Toronto would then send a 2017 fifth round pick to the Blue Jackets as part of the original trade agreement.
• After clearing waivers, Anaheim assigned center Joseph Cramarossa to the San Diego Gulls, the AHL team announced (Twitter link). Cramarossa had 11 goals and six assists in 61 games with Anaheim’s AHL affiliate in San Diego last season.