Latendresse traded to Wild for Pouliot

The Minnesota Wild and Montreal Canadiens traded underachieving forwards Monday afternoon.

Montreal sent power forward Guillaume Latendresse to the Wild in exchange for forward Benoit Pouliot.

Latendresse, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound left wing, has just 2 goals and 3 points on this season after a 26-point season in 2008-09. In his first three season, Latendresse had put together back-to-back 16-goal seasons in his first two years in the League.

"Guillaume is a young, talented forward who has averaged 15 goals per season in each of his first three NHL seasons,” Wild GM Chuck Fletcher said. “At just 22 years old, he will add size and a scoring punch to our roster.”

Pouliot, Minnesota's first-round pick, No. 4 overall, in the 2005 Entry Draft, has just 2 goals and 4 points in 13 games this season. The 6-foot-3, 199-pound left wing has 9 goals and 18 points in 65 NHL games, spread across parts of four seasons.

Pouliot is presently out of the lineup with an upper-body injury. He last played on Nov. 13. Latendresse, meanwhile, has been relegated to third- and fourth-line duty for the Canadiens. He has not seen more than 9 minutes of ice time since Nov. 5.

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