It’s been a very busy week for the Montreal Canadiens, but there’s still some work to do when discussing potential contract offers.
The Canadiens are reportedly interested in signing Mike Matheson to a contract extension now that they’ve taken care of a few pressing issues, including long-term deals for phenom Lane Hutson, not to mention for the two architects of the rebuild, Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton.
“That’s going to be a big priority now for Montreal management,” explained Pierre LeBrun.” They want to extend Mike Matheson. I’m told Mike Matheson and his agent are interested in having that conversation. So that’ll get going at some point here in the near future.”
Despite the intense level of criticism sent Matheson’s way in recent years, there’s no doubt he brings value to the table for the Canadiens. His $4.875 million annual average value (AAV) makes him the 80th highest-paid defenceman in the league, and yet, he currently stands as the team’s busiest defenceman at 5v5, with an average ice time of 18:18 per game to start the 2025-26 season.
His time with the Canadiens has involved so much usage, that he’s averaged over 25 minutes of all-situations ice time per game since 2023-2024, far and away the heaviest workload among all Habs players in that span. To give you an idea, Hutson has averaged 22:42 of all-situations ice time in that same stretch.
To put a fine point on the usage, only Zach Werenski and Drew Doughty have spent more average time on ice than Matheson in the last few seasons.
Essentially, Matheson has been used as a No.1 defenceman, despite being paid like a No.3, displaying a rather chasmic discrepancy between his pay grade and role within the organization.
This is not lost on Canadiens management, who, despite having upgraded the defensive situation significantly, understand that Matheson may be able to absorb as much ice time as offered, but that’s not necessarily the case for some of the younger players, at least not yet.
It’s also important to note that Matheson stands as the lone ‘aging veteran’, so to speak. Matheson, 31, is two years older than Alexandre Carrier, and six years older than Noah Dobson. I’m usually the last to suggest teams need to keep older players around, but we have to consider the Canadiens are the youngest team in the league, and there’s certainly something to be said about keeping productive veterans in the mix to provide some guidance.
Mike Matheson Potential Cap Hit
According to LeBrun, Matheson is not interested in a short-term deal, which makes sense given that this will likely be the final season in which he can dictate his future with a long-term deal.
“The question is, what’s the sweet spot here? He’s 31 years old.” said LeBrun. “He does not want to sign a short-term deal, I think. It has to be four to five years for it to make sense for him. What’s the AAV that makes sense for Montreal? They need something that takes their cap culture.”
As we discussed earlier in the week, the Montreal Canadiens are in a very healthy salary-cap situation. They have all their core players signed to reasonable, long-term deals. They’ll have roughly $28 million in cap space available as early as next season, and even more so in the following years, as the maximum salary cap is set to continue its meteoric rise.
That doesn’t mean the team can afford to break the bank for Matheson, but given his hectic usage, his current dominance alongside Noah Dobson, and the overall makeup of the defensive group, you’d be hard-pressed to suggest they can simply toss him aside and efficiently plug the holes internally, as some have suggested.
Mike Matheson might be enjoying the best individual start to the year for the Habs.
Nice pass by Suzuki to make it 3-1. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/5qWbHZIKqF
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) October 9, 2025
Simply put, Matheson was thrown to the wolves from a usage standpoint since his arrival in Montreal, a situation that has led to a fair amount of memorable giveaways, which has overshadowed his role in bringing the team to the next level.
As long as the two parties can agree on a number that keeps Matheson in roughly the same pay range, while accounting for the increasing salary cap, keeping the Montreal native in the mix seems like the most logical way forward.
All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.
All salary cap information via Cap Wages.