Avs trade prospect Chris Bigras to Rangers for big defenseman Graves

The Avalanche’s trade-deadline streak lives after all.

Well past the 1 p.m. actual NHL trade deadline expired, but Avs announced a deal that had been sitting in the queue for a while. The deal is: Defenseman Chris Bigras to the New York Rangers for 6-foot-5, 226-pound defenseman Ryan Graves, a fourth-round pick of the Rangers in 2013.

Graves, 22, will be sent to the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL.

Graves has 11 points (4g, 7a) in 57 games while serving as an alternate captain. He has totaled 62 points (21g, 41a) in 207 career AHL contests, all with Hartford. The Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, native registered 30 points (8g, 22a) in 76 games with the Wolf Pack in 2016-17, tied for first among the team’s blueliners in goals, assists and points.

Graves played four seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with the Prince Edward Island Rocket (2011-13), Charlottetown Islanders (2013-14), Val-d’Or Foreurs (2013-14) and Quebec Remparts (2014-15), getting 86 points (25g, 61a) in 245 QMJHL games. He helped Val-d’Or to the President’s Cup as QMJHL playoff champions and a Memorial Cup berth in 2013-14. He returned to the Memorial Cup the following season as a member of the Remparts, ranking second among team defensemen with five points (2g, 3a) in the tournament to earn all-star honors.

Bigras, a second-round in 2013, started the season on the Avs’ regular-season roster and there were high hopes for his future with the club. But he had a couple of shaky games early on, and never seemed to earn the confidence of coach Jared Bednar from there.

In 20 games with San Antonio this year, Bigras had a goal, five assists and was a minus-1.

The Avs now have made at least one trade on deadline day for 16 consecutive years, an NHL record for the moment.