Third line imo. I love Andy but idk if I see him fitting our window and so I kinda wouldn’t mind a first + solid RD prospect for him at the draft if that’s something Hughes could get.
FrankBlizzard
on a top level team, I figure he’s a 3rd liner who can temporarily fill in the top 6 in case of injury
BlazeOfGlory72
Like others have said, the 3rd line. I get he’s “gritty” and all, but the dude has only ever scored more than 32pts once in his career. He’s also not much of a play-off performer either, scoring only 14pts in 43 play-off games, so he shouldn’t be promoted into the top 6 for a play-off run either. He’d be a solid depth guy on a good team, but that’s about it.
unbjames
Def middle six
mountainpope
The salary is irrelevant, he’s a third line player
Big Bergevin thought he was Rantanen and that’s his mistake
ukrainianhab
Trade
ForumsGhost
He was on the 3rd line during our cup run
Gros_Picoppe
Hockey fans and their obsession with line numbering…
On all 4 conference finals teams, the top wingers are pretty evenly spread out on the first 3 lines. It’s all about roles and chemistry.
Aho has Noesen on his right wing. Barkov has Duclair on his left wing.
Anderson is technically a third liner but he’d play with whoever he fits.
imtoocoldforthisshit
Objectively I think he’s one of those guys that’s like an Uber 3rd liner but just a « good » second liner.
I don’t have time to make a Harvard level defence of the guy but I absolutely love Anderson though. He hits, he fights occasionally, he sticks up for teammates and most importantly (and this can be a bad thing sometimes) the nature of his playstyle makes him not so tied to the rest of the team for his production. A lot of his goals come when the team is having a terrible night, getting dominated and he tips a pass at the blueline and takes it down the ice and scores or something like that. Sometimes all that goal does is take it from 6-1 to 6-2 or something but a lot of the time it completely changes the momentum. It not how many he scores but *when* he scores them. Reminds me a lot of Byron in that sense.
I think he’s another in a long line of guys who is just being asked too much because we dont have a good roster. Some day when we’re a better team he’s going to be known as one of our most important guys and you can mark those words. At the end of the day he’s finished top 3 in goals all three seasons here.
Osky1965
2nd
bananakin94
Middle six is the safe bet but you never know. Its hard to answer because the most important part is role and deployment. If he has a role on the top line he could easily be slotted in there. Just look at Lehkonen. Nowhere near a top line level talent but consitently plays with Mackinnon because he fills a role.
Longshanks123
I’m gonna go against the grain and say that – in the playoffs at least – he’s a second line guy. If you look at what works in the playoffs, it’s grinding, heavy-forechecking, physical play. The four teams left now all play that style, and all feature big, strong, tough wingers who have neutralized better-skilled opponents through the first two rounds.
Anderson has a rare combination of size, speed, and physicality, along with being a 20 goal guy. I think he’d slot in nicely on the second lines of any of the remaining playoff teams.
RoiSoleilXIV14
Another team
willcochrane12
Anderson should play on a different team for $5.5 million.
Thaddeauz
Like someone else said, which line he would play doesn’t matter because players tend to be spread around the 3 first lines to get the best result.
What I do know is that Anderson with 21 goals would be the 4th best goal scorer forward on the Hurricane, 4th on Vegas, 5th on Florida, and 6th on Dallas equal to the 9.85M$ Seguin.
While being the 3rd highest forward in hits for Vegas, Florida, Carolina and 1st for Dallas.
monstercab
Habs were a Stanley Cup contender in 2021 with Anderson on the 2nd line. There’s your answer!
GreatWhiteNorth4
He’s literally the definition of a “middle 6” player. Given how a lot of teams are constructed these days, there’s not that much separation between the second and third lines anymore. At least not like it used to be. Most teams don’t just throw all their best guys on the same line, there’s chemistry and play styles that need to be considered. Some great players just don’t work together because they’re styles either clash or are just too similar. Which is why you see a lot of mix and matching in second and third lines with the wing pairs. Only the centres are really grouped where they should be in terms of 1-4 order. Wings are interchangeable to an extent.
If you’re going by the “traditional” view of it. He’s a third liner, but a very high end one at that. Who’s more than capable of playing on the second, especially if you want to add some size or grit to it. He’s a capable 20 goal scorer who could probably flirt with 30 on occasion given the right conditions.
His skillset on ice is very unique (his sheer size aka not just height with that speed) and there’s a reason GMs are always sniffing around him. I know a lot of us here like to shit on GMs when they fuck up, but in general they do know more than we do lol. Especially when there’s a consensus of them.
canadiatv
Lekhonen is on first line in colorado and first pp while he was 3rd or 4th line here at times. Colorado won the cup with him on first line. Winning a cup isn’t about having Anderson on the third line but it has to do with surrounding your key players like mackinnon, price, crosby… Look at florida right now. Nobody saw them there as they barely made it to the playoffs while so many saw Boston as an 80% chance to win the cup . They just have 4 solid lines.
Coming back to anderson… I think he plays his heart out in the playoffs and brings lots of energy and a positive attitude. Team is down by 1? Guess who’s in your face going hard to get back into it. He might not be worth 5.5 at times but i prefer having him than a dormant super star maple leaf player that gets over 10 mil a year ( funny how this description can apply to more than one player on their team ) .
19 Comments
3rd line
Third line imo. I love Andy but idk if I see him fitting our window and so I kinda wouldn’t mind a first + solid RD prospect for him at the draft if that’s something Hughes could get.
on a top level team, I figure he’s a 3rd liner who can temporarily fill in the top 6 in case of injury
Like others have said, the 3rd line. I get he’s “gritty” and all, but the dude has only ever scored more than 32pts once in his career. He’s also not much of a play-off performer either, scoring only 14pts in 43 play-off games, so he shouldn’t be promoted into the top 6 for a play-off run either. He’d be a solid depth guy on a good team, but that’s about it.
Def middle six
The salary is irrelevant, he’s a third line player
Big Bergevin thought he was Rantanen and that’s his mistake
Trade
He was on the 3rd line during our cup run
Hockey fans and their obsession with line numbering…
On all 4 conference finals teams, the top wingers are pretty evenly spread out on the first 3 lines. It’s all about roles and chemistry.
Aho has Noesen on his right wing. Barkov has Duclair on his left wing.
Anderson is technically a third liner but he’d play with whoever he fits.
Objectively I think he’s one of those guys that’s like an Uber 3rd liner but just a « good » second liner.
I don’t have time to make a Harvard level defence of the guy but I absolutely love Anderson though. He hits, he fights occasionally, he sticks up for teammates and most importantly (and this can be a bad thing sometimes) the nature of his playstyle makes him not so tied to the rest of the team for his production. A lot of his goals come when the team is having a terrible night, getting dominated and he tips a pass at the blueline and takes it down the ice and scores or something like that. Sometimes all that goal does is take it from 6-1 to 6-2 or something but a lot of the time it completely changes the momentum. It not how many he scores but *when* he scores them. Reminds me a lot of Byron in that sense.
I think he’s another in a long line of guys who is just being asked too much because we dont have a good roster. Some day when we’re a better team he’s going to be known as one of our most important guys and you can mark those words. At the end of the day he’s finished top 3 in goals all three seasons here.
2nd
Middle six is the safe bet but you never know. Its hard to answer because the most important part is role and deployment. If he has a role on the top line he could easily be slotted in there. Just look at Lehkonen. Nowhere near a top line level talent but consitently plays with Mackinnon because he fills a role.
I’m gonna go against the grain and say that – in the playoffs at least – he’s a second line guy. If you look at what works in the playoffs, it’s grinding, heavy-forechecking, physical play. The four teams left now all play that style, and all feature big, strong, tough wingers who have neutralized better-skilled opponents through the first two rounds.
Anderson has a rare combination of size, speed, and physicality, along with being a 20 goal guy. I think he’d slot in nicely on the second lines of any of the remaining playoff teams.
Another team
Anderson should play on a different team for $5.5 million.
Like someone else said, which line he would play doesn’t matter because players tend to be spread around the 3 first lines to get the best result.
What I do know is that Anderson with 21 goals would be the 4th best goal scorer forward on the Hurricane, 4th on Vegas, 5th on Florida, and 6th on Dallas equal to the 9.85M$ Seguin.
While being the 3rd highest forward in hits for Vegas, Florida, Carolina and 1st for Dallas.
Habs were a Stanley Cup contender in 2021 with Anderson on the 2nd line. There’s your answer!
He’s literally the definition of a “middle 6” player. Given how a lot of teams are constructed these days, there’s not that much separation between the second and third lines anymore. At least not like it used to be. Most teams don’t just throw all their best guys on the same line, there’s chemistry and play styles that need to be considered. Some great players just don’t work together because they’re styles either clash or are just too similar. Which is why you see a lot of mix and matching in second and third lines with the wing pairs. Only the centres are really grouped where they should be in terms of 1-4 order. Wings are interchangeable to an extent.
If you’re going by the “traditional” view of it. He’s a third liner, but a very high end one at that. Who’s more than capable of playing on the second, especially if you want to add some size or grit to it. He’s a capable 20 goal scorer who could probably flirt with 30 on occasion given the right conditions.
His skillset on ice is very unique (his sheer size aka not just height with that speed) and there’s a reason GMs are always sniffing around him. I know a lot of us here like to shit on GMs when they fuck up, but in general they do know more than we do lol. Especially when there’s a consensus of them.
Lekhonen is on first line in colorado and first pp while he was 3rd or 4th line here at times. Colorado won the cup with him on first line. Winning a cup isn’t about having Anderson on the third line but it has to do with surrounding your key players like mackinnon, price, crosby… Look at florida right now. Nobody saw them there as they barely made it to the playoffs while so many saw Boston as an 80% chance to win the cup . They just have 4 solid lines.
Coming back to anderson… I think he plays his heart out in the playoffs and brings lots of energy and a positive attitude. Team is down by 1? Guess who’s in your face going hard to get back into it. He might not be worth 5.5 at times but i prefer having him than a dormant super star maple leaf player that gets over 10 mil a year ( funny how this description can apply to more than one player on their team ) .