Value of: Mike Matheson

TT1

Registered User
May 31, 2013
23,715
6,206
Montreal
Which teams need someone like Matheson and what's the best offer we could get for him? Matheson is a legit stud, he's cost controlled for 2+ seasons and we could even eat some salary for a contender (he's already cheap tho). He's still in his prime, plays big minutes (he can easily play 24-25 mins) vs top competition and he can play on PP1 but he's a great luxury to have on PP2 for a contender.

It's actually very possible that Matheson could get moved as soon as this season imo, we have a lot of players coming up (Hutson/Reinbacher/Mailloux/Barron/Engstrom) and age-wise he doesn't fit into our long term plans (by the time we'll be ready to contend his contract will be up etc.).

Biggest need for MTL is young top 6 help (players that fit into our cores age group), we could add additional pieces like picks (not our 1st rounder)/Barron/Harris/other prospects (Mesar/Barron/Farrell etc) for a bigger deal.
 
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crackdown44

Cold milk cools down hot food
Dec 1, 2017
4,495
5,521
Which teams need someone like Matheson and what's the best offer we could get for him? Matheson is a legit stud, he's cost controlled for 2+ seasons and we could even eat some salary for a contender (he's already cheap tho). He's still in his prime, plays big minutes (he can easily play 24-25 mins) vs top competition and he can play on PP1 but he's a great luxury to have on PP2.

It's actually very possible that Matheson could get moved as soon as this season imo, we have a lot of players coming up (Hutson/Reinbacher/Mailloux/Barron/Engstrom) and age-wise he doesn't fit into our long term plans (by the time we'll be ready to contend his contract will be up etc.).

Biggest need for MTL is young top 6 help (players that fit into our cores age group), we could add additional pieces like picks/Barron/Harris/other prospects (Mesar/Barron/Farrell etc) for a bigger deal.

You lost me here
 

Empoleon8771

Registered User
Aug 25, 2015
81,456
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Redmond, WA
I feel like if Matheson is playing 24-25 minutes for your team, your team is very likely bad.

I feel like he's firmly a 2nd pair puck mover on a good team. Put him with a good DFD on the 2nd pair and his impact in the transition game and in the offense zone will be great. If you ask him to be more than that, you'll likely end up regretting it.

I think he's a very good but very flawed player. If you play him as a #3 with a partner who brings what he lacks, I think he's a great player for any team. Play him with a guy like Tanev on your 2nd pair and your 2nd pair would be terrific.
 

TT1

Registered User
May 31, 2013
23,715
6,206
Montreal
You lost me here
he can play 1st pairing minutes (i mean he he has the ability to do that, you're not just throwing a random player in that role, he's proven) and can be a quarterback on PP1, he doesn't look out of place

now i'm not saying he's Makar or Hughes on PP1 but he's a solid PP1 player

I feel like if Matheson is playing 24-25 minutes for your team, your team is very likely bad.

I feel like he's firmly a 2nd pair puck mover on a good team. Put him with a good DFD on the 2nd pair and his impact in the transition game and in the offense zone will be great. If you ask him to be more than that, you'll likely end up regretting it.
i'm not saying Matheson is a 24-25 min player on a cup contender/winner, I'm saying he has the ability to do that, he's shown it this year

obviously it's a nice luxury to have in the playoffs if players get injured or you wanna have more options
 
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Lockin17

Registered User
Jul 31, 2018
3,271
2,375
Which teams need someone like Matheson and what's the best offer we could get for him? Matheson is a legit stud, he's cost controlled for 2+ seasons and we could even eat some salary for a contender (he's already cheap tho). He's still in his prime, plays big minutes (he can easily play 24-25 mins) vs top competition and he can play on PP1 but he's a great luxury to have on PP2.

It's actually very possible that Matheson could get moved as soon as this season imo, we have a lot of players coming up (Hutson/Reinbacher/Mailloux/Barron/Engstrom) and age-wise he doesn't fit into our long term plans (by the time we'll be ready to contend his contract will be up etc.).

Biggest need for MTL is young top 6 help (players that fit into our cores age group), we could add additional pieces like picks (not our 1st rounder)/Barron/Harris/other prospects (Mesar/Barron/Farrell etc) for a bigger deal.
I understand the rebuild strategy but that would be a disrespect to the fans.
Habs would be bad and sad too watch without Matheson.
Unless it's a overpayment Habs keeps him.
I see more Savard/Kovacevic being on the table atm.
 
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crackdown44

Cold milk cools down hot food
Dec 1, 2017
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5,521
he can play 1st pairing minutes and can be a quarterback on PP1, he doesn't look out of place

now i'm not saying he's Makar or Hughes on PP1 but he's a solid PP1 player

He’s kind of getting caved in at 5 on 5 defensively playing 1st pairing minutes. I also watch a fair bit of Montreal as they’re my second favourite team and he is far and away my least favourite part of PP1. Hutson can’t come fast enough

I think his value to a contender would be 2nd pair offensive Dman and ideally you shelter him
 
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Scintillating10

Registered User
Jun 15, 2012
19,290
8,770
Nova Scotia
Which teams need someone like Matheson and what's the best offer we could get for him? Matheson is a legit stud, he's cost controlled for 2+ seasons and we could even eat some salary for a contender (he's already cheap tho). He's still in his prime, plays big minutes (he can easily play 24-25 mins) vs top competition and he can play on PP1 but he's a great luxury to have on PP2 for a contender.

It's actually very possible that Matheson could get moved as soon as this season imo, we have a lot of players coming up (Hutson/Reinbacher/Mailloux/Barron/Engstrom) and age-wise he doesn't fit into our long term plans (by the time we'll be ready to contend his contract will be up etc.).

Biggest need for MTL is young top 6 help (players that fit into our cores age group), we could add additional pieces like picks (not our 1st rounder)/Barron/Harris/other prospects (Mesar/Barron/Farrell etc) for a bigger deal.
Dallas needs defense, Tampa
 

Ezpz

No mad pls
Apr 16, 2013
14,927
11,091
I feel like if Matheson is playing 24-25 minutes for your team, your team is very likely bad.

I feel like he's firmly a 2nd pair puck mover on a good team. Put him with a good DFD on the 2nd pair and his impact in the transition game and in the offense zone will be great. If you ask him to be more than that, you'll likely end up regretting it.

I think he's a very good but very flawed player. If you play him as a #3 with a partner who brings what he lacks, I think he's a great player for any team. Play him with a guy like Tanev on your 2nd pair and your 2nd pair would be terrific.
He moved up with the Habs and is outscoring both Letang and Karlsson. If anything it shows Pittsburgh didn't know what they had offensively. He is most certainly a top pairing guy, but he needs a real stay at home guy to cover his constant roaming. Except for Dobson everyone ahead of him in scoring is a former Norris winner or finalist. He's playing on the lowest team in the standings who have scored the least goals compared with the rest of them except maybe Dahlin. He's playing 2-3 minutes more a night than a lot of hfboards proclaimed #1 D. He's outperforming Chrychun for example both offensively and defensively.

If the Habs had a better second line and didn't play Jake Allen they'd easily be 10 spots higher in the standings, we're not as low as we are because of Matheson. Allen is 5-15 this year when both of our other goalies are 17-21. Winning once every 4 games to winning nearly half of them is a pretty significant difference. Even just adding 4 wins to Allen to normalize it to 9-11 like the others would be a huge difference in the standings. Adding 8 points moves us 7 spots. The team basically gave up after the Monahan trade since it was Hughes throwing in the towel on the playoffs.

The real reason the Habs would move on from Matheson is because skating is such a huge part of him game and most guys fall off in that respect around 33-34. Matheson's turning 30 in a few days and he probably isn't worth investing a 7 year deal on for us where we're going to be a wildcard team for the years he's actually good then we get his anchor years when we need cap space. He's got two more years at 4.25 which is insanely good value, and if we retained it's basically having a top pairing guy on an ELC. There's no reason for us to extend him then at 32 years old.

When 7 dmen in the entire league are outperforming him offensively it's hard to say he wouldn't do well anywhere. Crosby and Guentzal are the only Pens outscoring him for the record.
 
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Habsrule

Registered User
Jun 13, 2004
3,499
2,364
I don’t think that Matheson is the type of guy to trade just yet. If they were to move him the Habs PP would take a nosedive. No other defenceman on the team can play PPQB.

Mailloux and Hutson are neither on the roster yet and they will be Matheson’s replacement.
 

Gurglesons

Registered User
Dec 18, 2009
92,203
74,460
San Diego, CA
last-train-tocool.blogspot.com
He moved up with the Habs and is outscoring both Letang and Karlsson. If anything it shows Pittsburgh didn't know what they had offensively. He is most certainly a top pairing guy, but he needs a real stay at home guy to cover his constant roaming. Except for Dobson everyone ahead of him in scoring is a former Norris winner or finalist. He's playing on the lowest team in the standings who have scored the least goals compared with the rest of them except maybe Dahlin. He's playing 2-3 minutes more a night than a lot of hfboards proclaimed #1 D. He's outperforming Chrychun for example both offensively and defensively.

If the Habs had a better second line and didn't play Jake Allen they'd easily be 10 spots higher in the standings, we're not as low as we are because of Matheson. Allen is 5-15 this year when both of our other goalies are 17-21. Winning once every 4 games to winning nearly half of them is a pretty significant difference. Even just adding 4 wins to Allen to normalize it to 9-11 like the others would be a huge difference in the standings. Adding 8 points moves us 7 spots. The team basically gave up after the Monahan trade since it was Hughes throwing in the towel on the playoffs.

The real reason the Habs would move on from Matheson is because skating is such a huge part of him game and most guys fall off in that respect around 33-34. Matheson's turning 30 in a few days and he probably isn't worth investing a 7 year deal on for us where we're going to be a wildcard team for the years he's actually good then we get his anchor years when we need cap space. He's got two more years at 4.25 which is insanely good value, and if we retained it's basically having a top pairing guy on an ELC. There's no reason for us to extend him then at 32 years old.

When 7 dmen in the entire league are outperforming him offensively it's hard to say he wouldn't do well anywhere. Crosby and Guentzal are the only Pens outscoring him for the record.

Erik Karlsson just put up 100 pts with the Sharks. Mike Matheson is getting a ton of points because he's on a shit team.
 
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TBF1972

Registered User
May 19, 2018
7,841
6,287
He moved up with the Habs and is outscoring both Letang and Karlsson. If anything it shows Pittsburgh didn't know what they had offensively. He is most certainly a top pairing guy, but he needs a real stay at home guy to cover his constant roaming. Except for Dobson everyone ahead of him in scoring is a former Norris winner or finalist. He's playing on the lowest team in the standings who have scored the least goals compared with the rest of them except maybe Dahlin. He's playing 2-3 minutes more a night than a lot of hfboards proclaimed #1 D. He's outperforming Chrychun for example both offensively and defensively.

If the Habs had a better second line and didn't play Jake Allen they'd easily be 10 spots higher in the standings, we're not as low as we are because of Matheson. Allen is 5-15 this year when both of our other goalies are 17-21. Winning once every 4 games to winning nearly half of them is a pretty significant difference. Even just adding 4 wins to Allen to normalize it to 9-11 like the others would be a huge difference in the standings. Adding 8 points moves us 7 spots. The team basically gave up after the Monahan trade since it was Hughes throwing in the towel on the playoffs.

The real reason the Habs would move on from Matheson is because skating is such a huge part of him game and most guys fall off in that respect around 33-34. Matheson's turning 30 in a few days and he probably isn't worth investing a 7 year deal on for us where we're going to be a wildcard team for the years he's actually good then we get his anchor years when we need cap space. He's got two more years at 4.25 which is insanely good value, and if we retained it's basically having a top pairing guy on an ELC. There's no reason for us to extend him then at 32 years old.

When 7 dmen in the entire league are outperforming him offensively it's hard to say he wouldn't do well anywhere. Crosby and Guentzal are the only Pens outscoring him for the record.
and with whom do you replace allen? prime hasek?
 

viceroy

Registered User
Mar 5, 2011
1,755
803
Montreal suburbs
Zero interest in a dman capable of putting up 50-55 pts? Weird but if you say so

Well duhhh... He plays for the Habs and is therefore worthless. We're basically just a bunch of ECHL'ers held together with duct tape.

and with whom do you replace allen? prime hasek?

No. We have 3 NHL goalies, that's the issue. No one has enough time to get into a groove. Sans Allen it would be Montembeault and Primeau in net for MTL.
 

jfhabs

Registered User
May 21, 2015
4,757
2,246
I feel like if Matheson is playing 24-25 minutes for your team, your team is very likely bad.

I feel like he's firmly a 2nd pair puck mover on a good team. Put him with a good DFD on the 2nd pair and his impact in the transition game and in the offense zone will be great. If you ask him to be more than that, you'll likely end up regretting it.

I think he's a very good but very flawed player. If you play him as a #3 with a partner who brings what he lacks, I think he's a great player for any team. Play him with a guy like Tanev on your 2nd pair and your 2nd pair would be terrific.
He's not a perfect player, but he isn't a flawed player either. He's not Gosth or Gustafsson, he can defend even tho it's not a strength. With the quality of competition he's facing and the minutes he's playing he'd be a top defenseman if his defending was great.

Since he's in Montreal he's been great, seems like he figured things. If he plays like that on whatever team acquires him, he'll be the best #3 in the league... Don't think he's traded, at least not this season.
 
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Benstheman

Registered User
Nov 20, 2014
6,726
2,891
As a Habs fan, i agree he ideally is a 2nd pair PMD who can play on both PP units. He is a great offensive threat there is no question about it.

But playing top opposition night in night out is a bit too much for him.

That being said, he is paid like a second pair Dman and has 2 years still on his contract after this one.

He has good value for a team in needs of what he can bring.
 

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