Josh Anderson is available, says David Pagnotta

The buzz isn’t as big as usual, but still: the trade deadline is just around the corner.

We’ll be seeing a number of transactions over the next few days, but it remains to be seen whether they’ll be first-order deals or more in-depth moves.

This is a question for the NHL as a whole, but also for the Habs. Who will leave? Who will stay?

If we had to draw up a list of who’s staying, it would undoubtedly be much bigger than the list of guys leaving Montreal over the next week. I think we can all agree on that.

Note that this isn’t because GM Kent Hughes doesn’t want to do a garage sale. The reason is that the items on his table are either broken, unattractive or too expensive for the buyer.

I’ve seen garage salesmen in my neighborhood sell broken items, but the buyer wasn’t an NHL GM.

Josh Anderson, if we want to continue the garage sale analogy, is currently, according to David Pagnotta, on the Canadiens’ garage sale table. But the problem is the price to pay (in Habs assets in salary) for something that doesn’t work as well as instructed.

At $5.5 million a year for another three and a half years, it would be highly unlikely that any club would be willing to table an offer by Friday that would make the Montreal Canadiens crack.

His six points in 2024 are not necessarily impressive.

Pagnotta is also of the opinion that a transaction between now and March 8 would be very surprising. And even this summer, I can’t say I expect him to be traded for sure.

Note that according to Renaud Lavoie, Kent Hughes would never have turned down a first-round pick for Josh Anderson, who has 17 points this season, since his arrival in 2022.

In bursts

– Yes.

– Gabriel Landeskog back in the playoffs?

– Mike Evans stays in Tampa Bay.

– What will the Ducks do with Trevor Zegras? He’ll have to show he wants to stay in Anaheim.

– Jakob Chychrun traded?