When Greenfield Park, Quebec native by Marc Bergevin at the NHL trade deadline for fringe prospect Jack Nevins and a seventh round pick, it was to little fanfare. In his last 163 regular season games, Mitchell had scored all of 12 goals and 19 assists, essentially half the pace he scored at when he was with San Jose the two years prior.
Playing on a dismal Buffalo Sabres team, Mitchell was heavily behind the eight ball when he joined the Montreal Canadiens. In 14 games post-trade deadline, Mitchell managed just a single assist on a goal by Jeff Petry in the second last game of the season.