Fall River Habs
Rejoint: août 2021
Messages: 893
Mentions "j'aime": 338
Matheson likely gets a similar return as Monahan, maybe a bit more. The difference is (obviously) that if Matheson goes to a bubble playoff team (like Pittsburgh), the first round pick coming back from them has a pretty good chance of being possibly 10 picks higher than the Winnipeg pick. That makes it more difficult for any bubble team to add anything other than their first round pick (in my opinion).
But people should not discount the value that Matheson has, as he is putting up good offensive numbers for a defenseman on a team that struggles mightily to score. His defensive game has not been fantastic this year, but put him out there with a good defensive defenseman on a better team and that likely gets better too.
I would love for Matheson to return a mid to late teens pick for Montreal.
As far as replacing him with a veteran to help guide Guhle, Barron, Mailloux, Harris etc, that's what Montreal can try to do in free agency in the off season. There are always some form of mentors available. That should not be a massive deterrent for Hughes to trade Matheson as far as I am concerned.