Do you think Tampa would be interested in Matheson from Montreal for either Gauthier or Howard and Tampa's 2026 first rounder (Montreal could even do some retention on Matheson, but not a lot)??

they wouldnt be able to afford his cap hit next season and he would also be on the bottom pairing behind hedman and sergachev

Matheson could switch playing to the other side and play with either Hedman or Sergachev. He has done it before.

Plus, doesn't TB always find a way to "make it work" with the cap?? With the cap going up next year a hit of $4.8M for Matheson (with Montreal either retaining or taking a player back with salary that TB does not want) could possibly work.

Just a thought.

tampa has to resign stamkos and hagel is getting a 5 mil raise next season, montreal would have to take sheary and jeannot to make the trade work

i def think cbj accept this unless they get a better offer from someone who throws in an extra pick for roslovic in exchange for retention

And that would cripple the remaining forward depth Tampa could've had

tbh sheary is getting healthy scratched so it might take a 3rd to dump him and jeannot is pretty divisive, I think hes dog**** and wouldnt mind paying someone to take him but some tampa fans like him because he gets into a fight every 4 games. Im sure leafs fans feel the same about reaves. At the end of the day though they should definitely not consider the matheson trade

Yeah, but my point is, who will replace those 2? And let's say there's another injury, who's replacing last year

Comparing to the Leafs, at one point, Maxim Lajoie was consistently getting NHL games bc we had nobody else after injuries... I don't see Tampa wanting a situation like that

this season they would be replaced by ABB, watson, possibly goncalves or someone they get at the TDL. Jeannot is a 4th liner and sheary is a healthy scratch so its not exacty big shoes to fill and next season they wont have a spot on the roster anyway when some of howard, huuhtanen, duke, goncalves, groshev come up. Either way though I dont think sheary waives to go to montreal

Sheary doesn't but my point still stands, Let's just say Paul and Watson get hurt, who's replacing them?