One thing to keep in mind is that Matheson gets all the opportunities on the PP. He had 28 PP points this season. All the other Habs Ds combined had 1 point...
Perhaps surprisingly, he's not that significantly ahead of Guhle or even Savard when it comes to ES production, especially given their respective usage.
I often hear people say Guhle has limited offensive upside, but I'd be very interested to see how he does with 1st PP icetime. He's a great skater, he moves the puck well, he has good composure and I think he has a harder shot than Matheson. We ranked 27th in PP% this year, what is there to lose?
I think he could be a 50ish points defenseman if we gave him the #1 LD role. I also think we should try running 2Ds on our PP as opposed to the 4 forwards set-up we've been using, so giving Guhle the opportunity doesn't necessarily take away from Matheson's ice time.
That being said, if there's a trade to be made with Matheson that can give us a mid round 1st round draft pick this year, possibly nabbing a falling Catton or a Yakemchuk in exchange... I'd be very comfortable letting him go.