It's very clear that goaltender Craig Anderson's days with the Ottawa Senators are numbers. If Anderson is still with Ottawa after the trade deadline of February 24th, the 38-year-old will becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season and it's very unlikely that the rebuilding Sens would even entertain an extension. Anderson knows what's coming, but admits it isn't easy.
“My heart and soul is here in Ottawa with the fan base and with the organization and the guys in here,” Anderson told the Ottawa Sun. “If something were to happen it would be definitely be a hard transition and a hard day but we'll see.
Anderson has been in Ottawa since 2010-11 and has played 425 games with the team, quite a bit more than the other three team he's played for combined (Chicago, Florida, Colorado).
I can't control it,” said Anderson. “All I can control is how come to the rink every day and present myself by being ready to play, working hard for the guys and making sure I'm enjoying myself. We're playing a game and it's fun time for me to be here and be part of this group."
“What happens, will happen. You can't put the cart before the horse and you just kind of sit here with the status quo and keep doing what I'm doing. There's no difference in feeling. There's two constants in hockey: Movement and injuries. We've seen plenty of that throughout the year throughout our team."
As for possible landing spots for Anderson, there was some speculation that he may have been targeted by Toronto after Frederik Andersen went down with injury. That has been put to rest now as the Maple Leafs acquired jack Campbell from the L.A. Kings. Anderson has a standard 10-team, no-trade list so he has some control over where he lands in a trade, but not a lot. Bruce Garrioch of The Sun states the team has a ton of respect for Anderson, which shouldn't come as a surprise, so he speculates Ottawa will approach the netminder before engaging in any serious trade discussions.
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