What’s Mike Matheson worth and how much does he have left in the tank?
Those are two questions that need to be answered as the veteran defenceman and the Canadiens negotiate a contract extension.
Matheson is in the final season of an eight-year, US$39-million deal he signed with the Florida Panthers. His agent was Kent Hughes, who is now on the other side of the table as the Canadiens’ general manager.
Matheson’s cap hit this season is US$4.875 million and he is clearly underpaid. Keeping the comparables to an internal pay scale, Matheson is looking at a US$9 million cap hit. That’s less than his defence partner Noah Dobson (US$9.5 million) and a shade more than Lane Hutson’s starting next season (US$8.85 million).
When Dobson joined the team during the off-season, he replaced Matheson on the power play and it was expected that Matheson would have a lighter workload. But, for the third consecutive season, Matheson leads the team in ice time, averaging more than 25 minutes a game. And those are hard minutes against the opposition’s top lines and on the penalty kill.
As for the potential term of Matheson’s next deal, four years sounds right but, as former GM André Savard once told me, “You always end up giving a player one year that won’t work out.”
Matheson will be 32 when his new deal kicks in. If the Habs give him five years, he’ll be 37 at the end of deal, which is old in hockey terms. This season, there are only six players who are 38 or older and the lone defenceman in the group is 40-year-old Brent Burns.
Five seasons, US$9 million per. As Larry the Cable Guy would say, “Git-R-Done.”
A winning deal: The Zachary Bolduc for Logan Mailloux trade has gone from a steal to the heist of the decade.
While Bolduc is settling in nicely as a top-six forward, Mailloux has been a disaster in St. Louis and has been demoted to the AHL.
Mailloux is an offensive defenceman and he needs to score to justify his presence in the lineup. He failed to register a point in nine games while living up (down) to his reputation as a defensive liability with a minus-12 rating in nine games. He was a healthy scratch for seven games.
Canadiens’ Zachary Bolduc gets past Utah Mammoth’s Jack McBain during the third period at the Bell Centre last Saturday.
Blues GM Doug Armstrong said the demotion is temporary, but I suspect Mailloux, who was one of Marc Bergevin’s final blunders as a general manager, is destined to be a career minor-leaguer.
Hage is winging it: There are a lot of people who have Michael Hage pencilled in as the Canadiens’ second-line centre of the future, but University of Michigan coach Brandon Naurato has moved him to right wing.
Hage, a first-round draft pick (21st overall) in 2024, is one of the leading scorers in the NCAA, with eight goals and 17 points in 12 games ahead of Friday’s game against Penn St., but Naurato felt the youngster had difficulty handling the defensive responsibility that comes with playing centre.
Hage also needs work on his faceoffs. He has a 45.8 per cent success rate and T.J. Hughes, who now centres the top line between Will Horcoff and Hage, is at 61.5 per cent.
Michigan has a history of developing pro prospects and Hage is one of 13 Wolverines who have been drafted by NHL clubs. They will benefit from the hiring of former Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty as a special assistant to the coach. Pacioretty played one season at Michigan before joining the Canadiens and Naurato was one of his teammates.
Goalies make a difference: The United States women beat Canada 4-1 and 6-1 in the first two games of the Rivalry Series, but there’s no reason to panic as the teams gear up for their Olympics showdown in February.
The U.S. used its top goaltenders — Aerin Frankel and Gwyneth Philips — while Canada went with youngsters Kayle Osborne and Ève Gascon. Olympic gold medallists Ann-Renée Desbiens and Emerance Maschmeyer sat out the two losses, but they’ll be on hand next month, when the series concludes with two games in Edmonton.
European expansion in the future? The NHL has opened an office in Zurich and it’s not too early to speculate about possible expansion to Europe.
The NHL plays regular-season games in Europe — the Penguins and the Predators are playing this weekend in Sweden — and there is a strong NHL presence on European TV.
The NHL isn’t alone in looking to tap the European market. The NFL wants to expand its international series of regular-season games from seven to 16, with each team playing one game outside the U.S. And there are plans for a 16-team NBA branded league to begin play as early as 2027. Potential cities include London, Manchester, Paris, Lyon, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Milan, Berlin, Munich, Athens and Istanbul.
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