Josh Anderson’s Future in Montreal Dependent on Big Trade

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Montreal Canadiens forward Josh Anderson is off to a nice start this season, scoring his third and fourth goals against the Washington Capitals. In the final season of his contract, talk about what the Canadiens plan to do with his extension have started to surface.

At 32 years old, there are reasons to re-sign him but also reasons to be cautious. Darren Dreger reported on Early Trading: “He’s a special player. He’s a power forward… When players like this going into the final year on their contract, have big starts the way Anderson has started in Montreal, guess what happens. Hockey insiders like me start poking around to find out, ok, what’s going to happen here?”

Dreger notes that the Canadiens would ultimately like to extend the forward. However, their plan is to wait. In fact, they want to be sure he won’t be included in a trade before they sign a new extension. Anderson is repped by Darren Ferris and the hockey agent likes to take his clients to July 1 and free agency. “How do you know what the market value is for any player unless that player is willing to go to market?”

Dreger said that Anderson does want to stay in Montreal. His family loves it there and he’s had success there.

Dreger said, “I know that general manager Kent Hughes spoke with Anderson before the start of the season to say, look, we’re focused on trade. We’re trying to bring in pieces to help this team. So don’t take this the wrong way. We just need to wait until later, but we’ll get to you.”

Does This Mean Anderson Will Be Traded?

Dreger’s comments don’t suggest the Canadiens are looking to trade Josh Anderson. Instead, it might mean Hughes doesn’t want to lock up a bunch of money or a term on a player until they know whether the organization is in or out on some of the bigger swings they’ve been trying to make.

The Habs have been linked to several trades and big names. They’ve yet to land any of them. That includes Matthew Knies and Kirill Marchenko. The Canadiens can’t allocate a bunch of money to a mid-30s Anderson if they can land a younger, more dynamic star or a second-line center.

Anderson could be part of a deal to land one of those pieces, but this is likely more about future cap space than anything.

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