Montreal Canadiens: Three Trade Offers The Habs Would Accept For Josh Anderson

The Montreal Canadiens made their first big move of the offseason already. They traded Shea Weber to the Vegas Golden Knights for Evgeni Dadonov.

That was the first of possibly many dominos to fall. It has already been heavily rumoured that Jeff Petry could be the next Canadiens player to find a new team. There could be a handful of veteran players packing their bags before next season begins.

One player who is apparently getting a lot of attention from others teams is Josh Anderson. General Manager Kent Hughes admitted as much when he spoke to the media following the announcement of the Weber trade.

Hughes essentially said that he was not shopping Anderson or reaching out to anyone to offer Anderson. However, he is getting a lot of calls about the right winger and he will of course listen to all offers and will make his team better if the opportunity arises.

This is exactly what he said leading up to the trade deadline about Artturi Lehkonen and Brett Kulak. Both were traded when the correct offer was made for the player. Hughes waited out the market and finally got a great prospect and a second round pick for Lehkonen and a second round pick with a fringe NHL piece for Kulak.

Both offers were terrific for the Canadiens, and the two players faced off in the western conference final so their new teams were not complaining either.

Can Hughes find a similar offer for Anderson? An offer that he can not refuse? Maybe, it would just take the right team that is knocking on the door for Stanley Cup contention but maybe needs a bit more scoring, or a bit more snarl on the wing.

Anderson’s combination of size, speed, shot, physicality, skill and work ethic is hard to find. It’s why he won’t be traded unless a huge offer comes along. What would that take? And which teams are most likely to be desperate enough to offer the overpayment?

Calgary Flames

The Calgary Flames won the Pacific Division fairly easily but lost in the second round quite quickly as well. To make it worse, their provincial rival Edmonton Oilers were the team that knocked them out.

With a Vezina contender in goal, a couple of elite forwards up front and a great group of defenders, the team will be looking to contend once again next season. But, they could lose leading scorer Johnny Gaudreau to free agency. Still, they would have a chance to win a weak Pacific once again in 2023.

Now, I am not suggesting that Josh Anderson would replace Johnny Gaudreau and his 115 points from last season. Not a chance. But he would cost a lot less, and still allow the Flames to chase a top six centre to join the team this offseason as well. They just might have to move out a little cash to do so.

But the Canadiens could help with that as well.

The Flames were one of the finalists in the Josh Anderson sweepstakes when he was traded from Columbus to Montreal. They have since hired Darryl Sutter to be their head coach. If anyone in the league is a Darryl Sutter type player it is Josh Anderson.

The Flames will definitely have interest, but the Canadiens would have to take on the final year of Sean Monahan’s lucrative contract to make the money work. This would actually save the Flames $750,000 against the cap next season, while adding a speedy 20-25 goal scoring, hard hitting top six winger.

It wouldn’t replace Gaudreau, but teams would absolutely hate to line up against a team that has Matthew Tkachuk, Anderson, Blake Coleman and Milan Lucic all on different lines. That’s Darryl Sutter hockey.

It would cost the Flames a ton, as in top prospect Jakob Pelletier, the Quebec native who scored 62 points in 66 AHL games last season as a 20 year old. For taking the Monahan contract, the Habs could also look for a decent pick such as a second rounder.

It is a lot, but the Habs don’t have to trade Anderson anytime soon. If the offer isn’t enormous then there is no deal.

Philadelphia Flyers

One team that is just so desperate they need to be taken advantage of is the Philadelphia Flyers. They made big trades last season to acquire Ryan Ellis and Rasmus Ristolainen and it failed miserably.

Ristolainen was just bad and Ellis was hurt for almost the entire season. The team dropped way out of playoff contention and traded Claude Giroux at the deadline for a mediocre package since he only wanted to play for the Florida Panthers.

Instead of learning their lesson and moving on, the Flyers decided to double down on what was left of their roster. They re-signed Ristolainen for five seasons and hired John Tortorella as the team’s new head coach. There is no chance they brought in Tortorella with the expectation of a rebuilding season.

But they aren’t nearly good enough to contend so they have to be aggressive and make big trades. That could include Josh Anderson who does kind of feel like a Flyers type of players. The speed. The aggression. The anger. It all spells Philly doesn’t it?

Anderson also played the beginning of his career with Tortorella as his head coach. He also had incredibly kind things to say about Torts last season when he was asked about his former bench boss.

Could the Flyers trade their fifth overall pick for Anderson? Definitely not straight up, but could that be the framework of a deal? It sounds crazy, but what if the Habs were to take on the final year of James van Riemsdyk’s $7 million contract and also offer up the very first pick of the second round?

Maybe. Just maybe. I mean, this team did trade a 14th overall pick and a second round pick last season for Ristolainen and Anderson is a much better player. Add in the cap savings by getting rid of JVR and an early second round pick and the Flyers might be just crazy enough to pull it off.

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