TSN’s “NHL Trade Bait List”: four CH players are on it, including Mike Matheson

Today is December 8. In exactly four months, on March 8, it will be the NHL trade deadline…

And it’s going to happen faster than we think.

The Canadiens will have some important choices to make. We can expect Kent Hughes to be sold in the context of the club not making the next playoffs, but the question is who will leave if that’s the case.

We know the goaltending situation, and we know that the Canadiens will have to choose between Jake Allen and Cayden Primeau.

But the case of Sean Monahan may also be of interest to other NHL teams, since the veteran is healthy.

Monny could become quite attractive to a team looking to solidify its center line because of his contract. At $1.985 million for the remainder of the season, it’s not a super-risky gamble, especially since his contract expires at the end of the current campaign.

TSN has published its first “NHL Trade Bait List” of the season, and it includes the names of the three Canadiens players named above…

But it also includes Mike Matheson’s name:

Let’s quickly note that three Calgary Flames players are installed in the first three positions of the list: Elias Lindholm (1st), Chris Tanev (2nd) and Noah Hanifin (3rd).

Allen and Primeau are tied for 4th, Monahan is 9th and Matheson’s is last.

TradingMike Matheson would be a first for Kent Hughes, in thesense that it would be the first time a GM transaction would involve one of his former clients leaving Montreal .

He has always said that he prefers to have as much information as possible about a player. So this would go against that mentality.

But the Habs are full of good left-handed defensemen (Xhekaj, Harris, Struble, Norlinder, Trudeau) and there are some who haven’t even made the jump to the pros yet. I’m talking about Lane Hutson and Adam Engström.

Mike Matheson has value on the market because he’s producing at an interesting rate for the salary he’s earning ($4.875 million a year). But there are still two more years left on the defenseman’s contract (after this season), and this is perhaps what will curb the ardor of the various NHL GMs.

Kent Hughes will have to sit down at his desk to determine whether the Habs really need a Mike Matheson in their line-up.

That said, a lot can change between now and March 8… And there are too many question marks right now to come to any obvious conclusion.

Breaking news

– Islanders add defensive depth.

– That doesn’t sound difficult at all.

– Nice little contest.

– It’s a free experience.