The Los Angeles Kings have acquired forward Torrey Mitchell from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for a conditional 2018 fifth-round draft pick. Should the Kings make the playoffs this season—they currently lead the Pacific Division—the draft pick would turn into the fourth-round selection that Montreal traded them last year in the Dwight King deadline deal.
Mitchell, 32, didn’t have much of a role on the Canadiens this season and had been held scoreless through 11 games. While this isn’t the shake-up some believe Montreal needs, it clears room in the team’s bottom-six for a younger player to try and give the team some spark. Mitchell did have 17 points last season and has been excellent in the faceoff dot since coming to Montreal, but hadn’t been effective in limited minutes this year.
The Kings have had some depth issues down the middle since Jeff Carter‘s long-term injury, and Mitchell will give them another option for the fourth line and penalty kill. The veteran of 617 games is familiar with the west coast from his early days in San Jose, where he broke into the league as a defensive-minded forward. Perhaps the Pacific breeze and a more secure role can give him a bit of a youthful burst for the second part of the season.
Mitchell is in the last season of a three-year, $3.6MM deal and will push the Kings a little closer to the cap ceiling. As for Montreal, who already had quite a bit of cap room even with six players on injured reserve (and thus 29 players counting towards the cap), they now have even more room to complete a splashy deal if they want to try and turn around their season right away. The Canadiens were active in the offseason, bringing in Jonathan Drouin and Karl Alzner among others, but were left with several million dollars of cap space after both Alexander Radulov and Andrei Markov left for greener (Dallas pun intended) pastures.
It also returns a draft pick to a team that is looking further from contention than anyone expected. Even with the addition of Drouin, Montreal can’t seem to generate much offense on a nightly basis and is currently led by Brendan Gallagher in goals and points. Drouin, Max Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk have combined for just 14 goals and 33 points, a disappointing total from a trio who have all shown elite offensive ability at times in the past. If the Canadiens aren’t able to turn things around from their 8-12-3 start, hoarding draft picks for a deep 2018 class is the likely course of action.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Someone with no points yet. Should fit right in.
Yeah I don’t really get this trade from the Kings standpoint unless it’s the “I’m sorry about Dwight King so here’s your pick back” trade. I like Mitchell but he’s a 4th liner who’ll chip in here and there, win a couple faceoffs and play semi-responsible in his own end. I’m kinda glad he’s out of Montreal since it should open a permanent spot for Jacob de la Rose.
Simply it stops Dowd and Laich from taking faceoffs which is probably a good thing for the Kings. Mitchell has speed and can play centre. I think it makes sense.
The Habs should be playing Carr and Holland on the fourth line. I haven’t seen much from de la Rose at any level to think that he’s a huge upgrade on Mitchell.
Mitchell’s lost a step in terms of speed but is still solid there. De la Rose is bigger, far more physical, a solid forechecker, good defensively and more importantly, he’s younger than Mitchell. I’ll agree with Carr needing to be called up because it looks like he’s found his scoring touch from 2016 but I do not agree about Holland. I’ve seen Holland for years and I don’t see what he’d add to the team that isn’t already there. If it’s to replace Deslauriers(who is awful), sure, bring him up. But If it’s to replace a younger player, it’s a backwards move.
De La Rose certainly is the bigger player and more physical, but there’s not much to suggest that he’s an upgrade over Mitchell defensively or offensively – in fact most numbers suggest that De La Rose would be a downgrade from Mitchell. De La Rose has struggled this year, even with sheltered starts. I think Holland at centre would be better for the development of the team’s younger wings. I honestly don’t think De La Rose is an NHL centre – wing perhaps, but not centre. Holland is big, can chip in offensively, is cheap, and isn’t terribly old.
Here’s where we agree, de la Rose is not a centre. He was drafted as a winger and had his most success as a winger. I have no explanation why he’s being used as a centre but he shouldn’t be there.
Well that’s my point – who plays centre ? I definitely prefer Holland over Froese and we both see De La Rose as a left winger. Holland makes the most sense on the fourth line as a centre.