Although it’s a little under the radar, one of the Canadiens’ big summer projects will be that of Mike Matheson. The defenseman, who will be a free agent in a year’s time, will be eligible to sign a contract extension next month… and that will be a big decision for management.
Will they sign him to a new contract? Keep him in town and risk losing him on the open market in a year’s time? These are the two scenarios in which Matheson is still in town at the start of next season.
That said, there is another scenario that exists: that of him being traded this summer. It’s probably not ideal in the sense that the Habs have already lost David Savard and would be short of veterans in town, but if the club deems Kaiden Guhle and Lane Hutson ready and wants to maximize Matheson’s value, it’s not a scenario to rule out.
And today on The Shaun Starr Show, Marco D’Amico made a good point: in the event the Habs want to trade Matheson, the free-agent market will help.
Because if we exclude Ivan Provorov and Vladislav Gavrikov (both of whom have a good chance of staying with their current teams), top-4 left-handed defensemen are almost non-existent on the market.
Unless a team sees Matt Grzelcyk or Dmitry Orlov as the kind of player who could give them big minutes on their top-4, Provorov and Gavrikov seem to be the only two real options on the free-agent market who could fill that role for a team.
Inevitably, then, some teams are likely to look to the trade market for reinforcements… and if the Habs are ever willing to take the gamble of trading Matheson (which, I repeat, would be a big risk for their young defensive brigade), the defenseman is likely to be in demand.
He’s not a perfect defender, certainly, but he’s capable of pulling his weight in big, tough minutes. And that’s worth its weight in gold, especially if a team sees him as an option to help its powerplay as well.
I have a hard time seeing a world in which Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton would trade Matheson over the summer… but if the club is able to pick up a good veteran (the names of Cody Ceci and Nick Perbix, who are right-handed, come up often) and has real confidence in Guhle, Hutson and Alexandre Carrier, it could be a defensible move.
And it would open up a bit more room for Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble… but then again, we’re not talking about veterans… and that could become a problem.
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