Josh Anderson is in his seventh season as a member of the Montreal Canadiens.
Soon, the Habs are going to have to decide whether his time there extends longer than this season.
Anderson is in the last year of his contract, which he originally signed with Montreal for seven years and $38.5 million.
If he reaches July 1 without a new deal, Anderson will be an unrestricted free agent.
That leaves the Canadiens with an eventual decision to make.
Canadiens Face Decision on Josh Anderson
The Habs have a couple choices here.
On one side, they can choose to extend Anderson — which would obviously require a compromise as the two parties negotiate for the best deal for both of them.
On the other hand, they could decide that Anderson won’t be extended, and rather than lose him for nothing at the end of the year, see if there’s a trade out there to be made for him.
The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta does note that Anderson has a five-team no-trade list, but that leaves open most of the league.
Josh Anderson’s Feelings Made Clear
Anderson’s feelings were revealed recently by TSN’s NHL insider Darren Dreger.
“What I can tell you here is that Josh Anderson and Kent Hughes, the GM for the Canadiens, met prior to the start of the year, and Josh Anderson made it abundantly clear as a designated leader that he wants to stay long term in Montreal,” Dreger said on a segment of the Insider Trading show.
That’s certainly an encouraging sign for the Habs.
On the flip side, at least one thing points to a potentially contentious negotiation.
“We know that Hughes and the Habs have been actively trying to acquire a forward,” Dreger continued. “So that’s been their priority. They are going to get into extension negotiations, I would expect sooner rather than later. But here’s also something that’s noteworthy. He’s represented by Darren Ferris. And Darren Ferris is a player agent who likes to march his top clients as close to July 1st or past July 1st as he can. And that is not the plan of the Canadiens and it sounds like Anderson wants to stay.”
The most important thing in the end is likely to be the fact that Anderson wants to stay. That should trump everything else in the end.
He has already played 428 games in Montreal and scored 99 goals with 65 assists. He’s got the rest of this season to go, and then it appears Anderson is hoping there will be more after this.
Canadiens’ Josh Anderson Makes Feelings Clear on Future in Montreal