Late last night the Blue Jackets and Josh Anderson ended their standoff signing a three-year deal worth $1.85M per.
Hearing Josh Anderson is going to take the three-year deal in CLB and sign. $1.85M AAV. End of the day, players want to play.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 3, 2017
Here is how the deal breaks down.
Breakdown of Josh Anderson's new 3 year deal with the #BlueJackets:
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) October 3, 2017
2017-18: $1,6M
2018-19: $1,85M
2019-20: $2,1M
* no signing bonuses
This is the offer the Jackets had on the table since September. Anderson wanted shorter term so he could have arbitration rights, but without any leverage he was forced to take the Blue Jackets deal.
So where do we go from here? To start Anderson should get his work visa figured out by Thursday and should be eligible for the home opener on Friday. Whether he will be in the line-up is another story. The Jackets roster was pretty much set before this. Now they need to send one player down to Cleveland. Tyler Motte and Markus Hannikainen do not need waivers to be sent down making them the obvious candidates. Zac Dalpe could also be an option but he needs waivers so the team may not want to risk losing him at this point.
The other thing here is whether Anderson is even going to play when he gets back to the team. John Tortorella had said that player who was not in camp may lose his job. Anderson missed all pre-season and has definitely been passed on the depth chart by Pierre-Luc Dubois and even possibly by Sonny Milano as well. Here is how the forward group shapes out.
Panarin-Wennberg-Atkinson Dubois-Foligno-Bjorkstrand Milano-Dubinsky-Anderson Calvert-Sedlak-Motte
If Anderson is a scratch or isn’t ready to go, Zac Dalpe could jump up into that third line spot. The other possibility here is Matt Duchene. Duchene would hypothetically slot into the #2 centre spot, bumping Folingo to the third line right wing and Anderson down to the fourth line. Anderson could also still be a part of a potential Duchene deal. Anderson is now more appealing to a team like Colorado. He has a team friendly deal and a new team won’t have to go through the hassle of negotiation.
At the end of the day Anderson decided he wanted to play in the NHL, and accepted the Jackets deal. He gives the Blue Jackets a nice boost to their bottom six and deepens a forward group that could use it.
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