The only way that Montreal can considerate that, is that if Matheson goes to Vancouver in the return. Hutson and Mailloux will likely gonna make the big team.

And Matheson have now little bit more value than Hronek.

Good luck!

No he doesn't

Matheson contract is a bigger steal that what Hronek will gonna receive (vs his real value), and the numbers are little bit higher.

Little bit means a low pick (3rd round or under).

Hronek is definitely more valuable, mainly because of he’s 4 years younger than Matheson and because he’s a RHD, but also because he’s better defensively and at 5v5

But that would imply Matheson's contract is a steal which it is not.

On the other hand Hronek is younger, right handed, and better

I'd rather pay Hronek 7 than Lindholm to be a 3rd center.

They arent taking more defenceman. They have too many already. Habs have probably 12 NHL caliber D coming to training camp with Mailloux, Reinbacher and Hutson looking for spots.. Someone is leaving. They need to give the kids an opportunity to earn a spot.

Management also loves Beck. There is a reason they decided to pick Owen before Lane Hutson despite saying how much they loved Lane's skillset.
Many teams were going to draft Beck, whom has the best floor. You need Becks in the league to win you games like a Danault, Lindholm.

Farrell/Mesar are the trade chips along with their 12 picks in the 1st 3 rounds in drafts '24 '25

I agree that Hronek has more value, I don't think the gap is that wide though given the contract situations (I know you never speculated on how much more value Hronek has).

I also think that if the Habs were to trade for Hronek then Matheson would definitely be either included or traded in a separate deal and one of Mailloux or Reinbacher would need to be moved as well since they would no longer have an opportunity to make the future Habs D corps.

All these speculations are weird. The Habs are not looking at defenders, they are looking at forwards.

Yeah. Its getting crazy right now with the congestion on the backend.

Hutson is clearly ready. That wasnt a Poehling situation vs AHL Leafs. He dummied a team fighting for their playoffs lives in Dtown and already looks like a potential elite top pair puck mover that can run a PP in his sleep.
Mailloux has proven everything in the AHL, they need his size when Savard is on his last year and Reinbacher is the type of player that plays better with better teammates (he shouldnt be in the AHL) he immediately looked 10 times better in Laval than that bottom feeder Swiss team and I suspect it will be the same in Montreal as he was drafted because of his high hockey sense and floor.

That was the point, in a round about way lol

I was just meaning that it doesn't make sense unless we move Matheson and Mailloux, even though I personally nd management likely wouldn't consider it

I apologize for the confusion, it wasn't meant to seem like I was saying we should move Matheson and Mailloux, I was only meaning that we are already too crowded

I get it. It's just weird that this post even exists. It's like if we made a post about trading Dach to Vancouver cause "they need a center" when clearly they don't.

With Hronek, Montreal can have a Dcore like this :

Guhle - Hronek
Hutson-Savard
Xhekaj-Mailloux.

Hutson-Reinbacher is going to be their top pair in a few years if not it's Guhle-Reinbacher going forward.
Savard has his last year and will be resigned only at a discount at best or if they are in contention for the playoffs otherwise he's gone by the deadline at the latest.

I dont think Matheson is going anywhere, the guy is chaos on the ice, at times, but his skating is just so elite and he will be a ton better when he isnt getting the toughest matchups like in Pittsburgh. MikeyM was unreal on the 2nd pair in Pittsburgh without the big point totals but his metrics were fantastic.

Next season I go with..

Hutson-Guhle
Matheson-Reinbacher
Xhekaj-Mailloux

Harris/Struble/Kovacevic are fantastic cheap depth pieces. Barron (not waivers exempt) needs to go!

Hronek may be better than Reinbacher & Mailloux today, but I doubt that will be true for long.

It's a steal unless you dont watch the games.



Trading Matheson is quite tired here.

He was put in awful situations in the last 2 years and still produced.
He may be a tad cocky/reckless as he's easily a top5-10 skater in the league and takes a lot of needless risks YET he isnt the best PP specialist. The fact this guy can dangle a whole team shorthanded and score like his last goal vs the Senators is unreal talent.
He isnt Savard, he's 3.5 years younger, signed with term, another local kid and can grow with this group. There is zero rush there. Habs fans have complained for years about lack of talented players. Matheson is a very talented player. His hockey sense, yeah, it can be a struggle at times but look at the team he's had to drag here!

I think that Reinbacher will gonna take the spot of Savard in the line-up in 25-26, but I think that he can resign a discount contract to stay with MTL.

And where is Hutson ???

We got the point you are a habs hater! Everyone have noticed it, that’s fine but come on. Stop with the bull****. Matheson under 5 millions is a massive bargain. No mather what you think, if you look at contract giving to defenseman around the league he make a lot less than what he should. Hronek is younger and that about it. He will cost a lot more then the 4,85 that matheson make.

It's simply intellectually dishonest to say anything other than a top4 D making 4.8M for 2 years at ages 30-31 and on a Jeff Petry like upwards trajectory is anything but a steal. Just ignore these people, Matheson, he could win the Norris and the haters will still say he sucks in a vacuum.

Good to have flexibility. Sure sometimes he is 3rd line but that third line is out playing Petey with Hog and whatever plug they have. And when Lotto gets the call, Lindholm is great to have.

Hughes doesn't need Hronek to be great. Neither does this team. I like Hronek a lot but he needs to do more if we are talking $7M+. I would love to see him out there w Z or Soucy driving offense without Hughes. Haven't seen it yet. And Willander can run pp2 soon enough for the 10 seconds it gets lol

I totally agree, you cannot like the players that fine. But saying such stupid thing as Matheson is not a bargain is just to much to me. I had to make him at least think about is foolishness. People will always hate and talk about is non advantageous stats but forget all about the category he is rank top 10 among nhl Defenseman. Also he was pn the ice for 12 empty net goal that have put is differencial in a bad spot. All of that neglecting the fact he was playing over 25 min playing all the thoughest machtup.

"We have a player who is top 10 in offensive production by defenseman for the 1st time since Subban left!"

"We do?! Trade him immediately!!!"

I don't hate the Habs, I actually like a lot of players on their team. I was one of the first to say Edmonton were ****es for not selecting Caufield at #8. I'm a big Dach fan and hope he can get past this spree of injuries to have a successful career. I really like Suzuki's 3-way game. I defended Slaf when people were calling him a bust after last year. I thought the Reinbacher pick was solid, when most of your own fanbase was loosing their mind over it.

It's just as simple as I'm not blind enough to fall for the trap of Matheson's, outlier season points total at age 30. There are very few players players in the league who had more points on the power play than they did at 5v5. Here is everyone that had at least 15 PP points; Stamkos, Zuccarello, Zibanijad, Matheson, Gostisbehere, L Hughes, Burns, Fowler, Montour, N. Foligno, Johnson. Foligno and Johnson are there because they played on the PP with Bedard but are otherwise 3rd liners. Montour had a major injury. Hughes is a rookie and stepped in to replace Dougie on PP1 on NJ. Fowler was moved to his off hand with the promotion of Mintyukov and Zellweger. The rest are all PP specialists for the most part, Zibanijad being the exception but Rangers fans have been complaining about his play all year.

Let's clarify something, I do not think Montreal should trade Matheson at all, his value to them as a team vastly outweighs his market value. They have a young D-core and need to shelter it as best they can. I do think Matheson will lose his PP1 job next season to either Hutson or Mailloux though. He probably won't get much more than 30 points.