BREAKING: Canucks terminates key player’s contract.
The optimism that veteran Canadiens forward Josh Anderson carried into this season has long since disappeared.
Now in his eighth full NHL season, only once has Anderson failed to hit double digits in goals. That occurred in 2019-20, when he underwent season-ending shoulder surgery and was limited to 26 games.
But heading into Tuesday night’s home game against Florida (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN Radio-690, 98.5 FM), Anderson has eight goals and 18 points in 69 games. He has been playing on a line with Jake Evans and Jesse Ylönen.
Management remains in his corner.
“I think the effort is there,” head coach Martin St. Louis said Monday. “I think the intentions are there. It could be a hard year for him, right. I think he expects more. I think he was snake-bitten for a while. I felt he was coming. Then the injury happened.”
“He came back and it seemed like he’s kind of been chasing the season a little bit,” St. Louis said. “It can be hard mentally on a player. For him, it’s just about trying to find some confidence down the stretch and to feel good about himself going into the summer.
“We know Josh can score goals in this league. He has proven to be a 20-goal scorer. This year most likely is going to be a one-off. There’s a lot (of good) in that player. We know what he can bring. He hasn’t forgotten how to score goals, but it’s tough sometimes because the game gets hard a little bit. And it’s hard to come out of it. We know there’s more in there and he’ll get that back.”
It was former general manager Marc Bergevin who signed Anderson in October 2020 to a seven-year, US$38.5-million contract, shortly after acquiring him in a trade from Columbus for Max Domi, who’s now playing for Toronto. Anderson is earning US$8 million this season, although his salary-cap hit is US$5.5 million.
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