You would be hard pressed to find anyone who covers the Montreal Canadiens that was championing Sven Andrighetto before Eyes on the Prize. We pointed him out as a possible steal of the draft in the summer of 2013, making note that since his original draft year where he went undrafted, he was the fourth highest CHL scorer in his draft class.
We had been itching as a collective to see Andrighetto called up, and it’s easy to fall in love with what we all saw now that it’s happened. Through four games, Andrighetto has two goals and one assist, and it’s easy to see he’s going to be an NHLer someday, and that day is soon.
His puck skills are great, his vision is solid, and he skates hard, but you can tell that he’s not quite there yet. Andrighetto struggles a bit in the defensive zone, and even though he’s played with high quality linemates, his possession game hasn’t been very good, sitting at just 47.1% Corsi. It’s a small sample, but I think we all know he can be better than that.
It’s easy to get caught up in Andrighetto’s offensive production, but take into account that he has only produced four shots on goal in four games, and he’s a shoot-first player. He’s working to get into the right areas, but his shot production isn’t there yet, and he’s not going to continue to score on 50% of his shots, nor will his linemates continue to score on 18.8% of theirs.
A player in Andrighetto’s situation isn’t going to be hurt by going back down to the AHL. Playing with a player like Hudon and dominating that league, he may be ready for the NHL by the end of the season, he may even be ready in a month, and he’ll be a better player for it.
This isn’t a situation where Michel Therrien is stunting a player’s growth. Andrighetto got some nice minutes for a rookie, great linemates, and powerplay time. When Lars Eller is healthy, he’ll likely be sent down, but we’ll see him again soon.
