Josh Anderson isn't playing coy. The Canadiens winger said Monday he wants to stay in Montreal, and that the contract talks are coming.
That's the kind of thing a player says when he's settled. It's also the kind of thing that quietly puts Kent Hughes on the clock.
Anderson carries a $5,500,000 cap hit. In this market, that number gets picked apart every week a winger goes three games without a point.
And the regular season gave the critics plenty. Fourteen goals, nine assists, 23 points in 72 games, with exactly one game-winner all year.
Then the bracket opened and a different player showed up. Five goals and seven points in 19 games, with a plus-6 while Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield both went underwater.
He talked about it Monday without a script, white Habs cap pulled low, mentioning his daughter being born here and the people he works with every day.
"I love this city and this team. The culture we've been building since Marty, Gorts, and Kent arrived is something pretty special. This city has been unbelievable. My daughter was born here and the people I work with are great. I'm a big believer that things will work out. I really see myself being in Montreal, and those conversations will start picking up soon."
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Josh Anderson just put Kent Hughes on notice with bold Canadiens contract message
The Canadiens finished 48-24-10 and sixth overall with 106 points. That's a roster with real expectations, not a rebuild collecting veterans to fill out a lineup card.
Their spring ended in Carolina with a 1-6 loss in the closeout game. Not the exit note anyone in that room wanted to carry into the summer.
There's also the special teams piece. Two shorthanded goals and two shorthanded assists last season, which is not a line most fourth options put on the board.
So what does Hughes actually pay for? The player who delivered once the games got heavy, or the one whose winter numbers read like a depth forward?
A playoff run is a great job interview. It's also 19 games, roughly the same evidence you'd get from one hot month in November.
Handing a 32-year-old winger money for a 19-game sample is how cap sheets get ugly three years later. That's the part nobody wants to say out loud in September.
The road record says something too. Montreal went 24-9-8 away from the Bell Centre, and heavy, direct wingers tend to matter more in those buildings, not less.
Hughes hasn't said a word about any of it publicly. Anderson just made sure the entire city is waiting on the answer.
Should Kent Hughes give Josh Anderson a new contract in Montreal?
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