Hughes and the Canadiens missed their opportunity to trade Josh Anderson at a high price and details are revealed

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MarcO
March 2, 2024 (2:30)

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It can be said without much mistake that Josh Anderson is not having a great season.

Since his arrival in Montreal, he had accustomed us to a pace of about twenty goals per year, but he is currently far from that.

Even Bob Hartley made a tasteful joke about him after the Canadiens' loss to the Devils during the "L'Antichambre" show!

That said, to get back to a more serious note, Charles-Alexis Brisebois, from the site Danslescoulisses.com, revealed a rather worrying statistic regarding Josh Anderson.

He earned more than half of his season's points in December with nine in 13 games, when he had shown some revival, especially between December 16 and December 28, where he scored five goals in five matches.

However, it has become quieter since the beginning of 2024, and moreover, he has scored only one goal in his last 20 games, and it was against the miserable San Jose Sharks.

But the major point of the columnist in all this is to wonder if Kent Hughes should have traded Anderson at that time when he had some offensive production.

A few months ago, Tony Marinaro agreed, mentioning that Kent Hughes should have traded his big right winger last season during an appearance on the JiC show on TVA Sports.

"Again, they should have traded him last year when he was doing well. He was playing good hockey.

At 28-29 years old, you're not going to change who you are, neither in life nor as a professional athlete. Josh Anderson shows up half the time."

About a year ago, several experts were convinced that Josh Anderson had certain value on the trade market due to his style of play and that he could fit perfectly with some teams for the playoffs.

Some believed that the Habs could have received a 1st round pick and maybe more in exchange for Anderson.

The Devils were very interested, in particular:

"I know that the New Jersey Devils showed interest in (Anderson) last season via trade." - The Athletic

But let's just say that this year, it will be much more difficult for Kent Hughes to move him in a trade, even for free, especially since he still has three seasons left on his contract with an annual salary of 5.5 million dollars.