Josh Anderson had quite a season with the Montreal Canadiens. After going through the worst season of his career in 2023-24, the power forward had an impactful season for the club this year. It wasn’t his most productive season, but the line he played alongside Brendan Gallagher and Christian Dvorak played a significant role in the team’s success, largely thanks to Anderson’s forechecking.
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In his post-season availability, he revealed that he had been dealing with upper and lower body injuries during the season and was still too banged up to participate in the World Championship. However, he confirmed that he wouldn’t need any surgery this offseason and praised the team’s medical staff.
The hulking forward has been playing through the pain since December and wanted to play for as long as he felt he could still help his team despite the pain; it ended up being the whole season.
Speaking about the team's future, he explained:
I think we have a bright future, the guys in this room have grown tremendously, starting with our captain Nick Suzuki, and how he leads by example. Cole had a great year, Slaf is only getting better, obviously, Lane had a tremendous year. We have the recipe to be a great hockey club, and it’s how you build around those guys, and I think we’re in the right hands with Jeff and Kent leading this hockey organization. But then again you can’t be satisfied with this year, it’s a step in the right direction but I think everybody knows we’re in “win now” mode and we’re all excited for that.- Josh Anderson on the team's future.
When asked if he believed the team was ready for an influx of rookies or if we could expect to see veterans around for longer, he spoke about what rookie Ivan Demidov can bring to the team, given how talented he is, but he stopped short of saying it was time for another big influx of youth.
The soon-to-be 31-year-old also added that the team has gone through some growing pains in the last couple of years, but they were over that now, and wanted to win. This isn’t surprising for a veteran starting the sixth year of his seven-year contract next season.
Anderson also had kind words for coach Martin St-Louis, saying he had been unbelievable with him and how great it was to work with someone he admired growing up. Having been coached by John Tortorella in the past, he added he sees a lot of similarities between the two when it comes to motivational speeches, which isn’t surprising given Torts coached the Canadiens’ coach in the past.
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