The Montreal Canadiens began selling off assets well ahead of the trade deadline.
They have until March 21st to complete any deals this season, but they got an early start when they sent Tyler Toffoli to the Calgary Flames for a first round pick, a good prospect in Emil Heineman, a depth veteran winger in Tyler Pitlick and a late draft pick.
As they sit at the bottom of the NHL standings, the Canadiens will make a few similar trades in the lead up to the trade deadline. More veterans will be shipped out for young players, prospects and draft picks, but Josh Anderson is showing he should not be one of them.
The Canadiens are going to try to rebuild this team quickly. Trading older players for picks and prospects is the only proper way to do that, but teams can’t just trade everyone. This is not a video game where you just deal everybody for draft picks and prospects and you pretty much know how good the players you are acquiring will get because they are part of a video game and don’t need the vision and guidance that young hockey players need in real life.
Rebuilding teams need to identify quality veteran players that will stick around for a couple of lean years to help show the young players how to work and act as a pro in the toughest hockey league in the world.
Anderson has the competitiveness that you want young players to learn from. He is currently playing on the team’s top line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. Suzuki and Caufield should be the cornerstones of the team’s offence for the next decade or so, but you don’t want them learning bad habits or cutting corners even in a lost season like this one.
Putting them on a line with a player like Anderson who never quits is the perfect role model for the two young Canadiens forwards. Anderson has more than just work ethic, he has a unique combination of size, skill, speed and shooting that is hard to find around the league. Not only is he the right leader for young Habs forwards, he is the right linemate for a couple of great young Habs forwards.
Anderson is leading the team in goals with 12 and has played just 40 of the team’s 51 games. That puts him on a 25 goal pace for a full season which is solid production.
When he was acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets for Max Domi, many Habs fans were unsure why the Canadiens needed to also give up a third round pick. Anderson was coming off an injury prone season where he had just one goal in 26 games.
Now, Anderson is proving to be an invaluable leader for the team’s brightest young stars to look up to. Along with Paul Byron and Brendan Gallagher, Anderson should be forming the leadership group of the team next season as it guides what should be an even younger team through its second year of what will hopefully be a rapid rebuild.