Lowkey - Habs are gonna keep Anderson for what he brings in the locker-room... a team can't be made up entirely of prospects.

I’m one of the few that likes him as a player and I don’t blame Montreal for keeping him.

It’s a decent offer but we really don’t have a need to move Anderson.

I'm not sure who needs to hear this, but the Canadiens don't want to trade Anderson. They've reportedly gotten calls and offers for him, but don't want to move him unless the offer makes sense. And for them to retain any part of his contract would add to what it would cost to get him. I don't think they'd care about taking short-term salary back, but a 2nd and a goalie prospect at Blomqvist's level is not worth considering.

And why would Edmonton make that deal? They've got Nurse, Ekholm and Kulak as left shot D under contract for the foreseeable future, plus Broberg. They don't really need Smith.

I want us to keep him and hope nobody makes a sufficient offer. This doesn't do it and involves a silly use of a retention slot besides.
Everyone is hyper-focused on value and advanced stats without consideration for the reality that you need to pay to keep certain players and analytics aren't everything.

For 3 years everyone has wanted to shoot Zucker into the sun and now at 31 having a great ufa year, surprise, you all want to hand him more money. I don't get it.

I mean...... people want to sign a guy who's playing amazing. I'm not sure what you don't get. Whether or not it's the right move can be debated - but it's pretty obvious the cause of the change

I just think that Anderson contract is so bad though - it's not just the term, it's the AAV too. Even if it was for 2 years it's still bad. If you can get rid of Granlund I'd just use his money elsewhere.

It was just the last two years and I'm pretty sure everyone recognized it was bad luck with injuries that kept him from his potential. When he first got traded here he was great. And a 3 year deal with a slight decrease in pay isn't that bad, considering that's the same cap hit as Granlund who is a good bit worse.

EDM should jump all over this, they're getting Smith for free...

He’s been one of our best players this season.

I’d rather have him than Granlund. Power forwards are rare today and they cause teams a lot of problems. The very best of them are among the most important players in the league. I wouldn’t call Anderson a member of the group (guys like Ovi and Kreider) but he could be our less scummy version of a Tom Wilson on a top unit with Sid and Jake. If he can score over 20 goals on a team that is bad imagine what he would do with this team?

If they're rare then there's probably a reason for that. I get what you're saying - but we saw him first hand on a good CBJ team for multiple years. He scored like 35 points per 82 games. Not something I want for 5mil. I just don't see where the value is. Sure he would obviously be better with Sid and Jake - but if we're throwing people on the top line I'd rather just do it with an AHL guy - or even Kap. Then use the cap savings to make the rest of the team better.

I don't like Granlund's contract at all either - and would love to get rid of it. I just think if you do it shouldn't be wasted on another terrible contract.