The offseason leading into the 2025-26 season continues, and with the major events such as the NHL Entry Draft and free agent frenzy completed, the dog days of summer wear on as NHL management groups take a bit of a breather before the training camps begin. In this series, I will try to investigate every Montreal Canadiens roster player, recap their last season and look ahead to this upcoming season. I will examine their role within the organization, their responsibilities, and their potential impact.
Related: Mike Matheson Gives the Montreal Canadiens a Great Trade Chip
In the next step of the series, I will move on to looking at the Canadiens’ blue line corps, continuing with Mike Matheson.
2024-25 Season Recap
Matheson entered the 2023-24 season as the number one defender on the Canadiens. He played the most minutes in all situations. He also contributed significantly on offence with 11 goals and 62 points. Once the 2024-25 season began, the expectation was for him to remain in that role and level of performance, but soon, Lane Hutson supplanted him on the top unit of the power play (PP) and took on the burden of many of the offensive five-on-five situations head coach Martin St. Louis used to rely on Matheson to fill.
With the loss of roles, there was a notable decline in offensive production, dropping to only six goals and 31 points. With Hutson’s arrival pushing him down the lineup, Matheson had to reinvent himself and accept the lesser roles he was asked to play. To his credit, he took the responsibilities on like a true professional. He provided the veteran support the young lineup needed and also took on more defensive responsibilities, playing a matchup role at five-on-five and taking on more ice time on the penalty killing (PK) units. While it was the least amount of points he has scored in a full season, his average ice time of 25:05 per game led the Canadiens and also played a role in their new, stable blue line, leading the team into the playoffs.
In the playoffs, Matheson formed the top pairing with Alexandre Carrier, but their advanced statistics were somewhat inconsistent. Their Corsi for percentage (CF%) was 53.1% and their expected goals for percentage (xGF%) was low at 35.98%. While they were the most used pair, the most effective was that of Kaiden Guhle and Lane Hutson with a CF% of 61.29% and an xGF% of 61.31%.
2025-26 Season Expectations
As Matheson enters the final season of his contract that pays him $4.875 million per season, general manager (GM) Kent Hughes now faces a difficult decision: sign him to a contract extension or trade him to fill other needs. Matheson’s performance and leadership make him a legitimate candidate for a contract extension, but it will depend on the term and salary remaining a bargain. With the NHL’s salary cap on the rise to $104 million in 2026-27 and to $113 million in 2027-28, it will likely depend on the cap percentage for his salary. This means that at a $95.5 million salary cap, his salary is at only 5.1% of the total cap, which would translate to $5.3 million, and is that something the Pointe-Claire, Quebec native is willing to accept to continue playing in his hometown?
For Montreal’s management group, the issue is ensuring that they continue to insulate their young players. Sometimes you need veterans like Matheson as support so that they aren’t forced to take on roles and responsibilities before they are ready, much like what happened with Hutson last season. This has not gone unnoticed by management as executive vice president Jeff Gorton, in an interview with Jimmy Murphy at RG.org, identified Matheson as a key player at this point of the rebuild.
“…he’s been a very, very, solid player for us. He’s a very good penalty killer; he plays against the best players every night, and there’s not much he doesn’t do.”
– Jeff Gorton
With so many young defencemen still developing, there is still a place for him. Matheson has shown the ability to provide positive puck possession statistics with nearly everyone he is paired with. This makes him an essential piece to provide support for youngsters like Arber Xhekaj or Jayden Struble. He will also need to continue his strong defensive play while on the PK that helped Montreal finish last season with the NHL’s ninth-best PK at 80.9%.
For Matheson, there is nothing more that he can do than continue playing any role he is asked to. By demonstrating his ability to adjust his game and provide veteran leadership, he proves his value to the Canadiens.
