Unpopular opinion

[Kosseca]

The return is what make a trade possible here.

 

[VirginiaMtlExpat]

I know people will not like this but here it goes...

Buy low sell high, it works with money and it works with sports.

Huberdeau 115pts season? Traded to CGY... since then a 50pts player

Karlsson 101pts season? Traded to Pittsburgh now gets about 50pts

It works as well for pending aging UFA's coming off great seasons that team don't re-sign like our former Captain Pacioretty who never produced like he did with us with a new large contract he got...

Habs are loaded on the D with blue chip prospect. We are still 2-3 years of being a cup contender. Matheson is coming off a career year 62pts season at 30yrs old and signed at 2 more years at 4.8M$. Trading him in the off season would be the smart thing to do, he will likely be a 30-40 pts D for another year or two at best, we could get something good for him now. Agree? disagree?

Other unpopular opinions?

What makes you think that this is so contrarian? I've lost count how many times I've seen this opinion of Matheson this past season.

 

[the]

We currently have two veterans in Matheson and Savard. It would be a bad idea to leave the team to our youngsters without any veteran leadership.

One of the two will be traded soon. I say they move Savard first by next years deadline. This will give some leeway for Matheson to stay longer.

Realistically we are keeping Matheson for 2 years unless we trade for another good veteran defenseman.

 

[1909]

The kids are ready, thats the problem.

They are not.

 

[Mrb1p]

They are not.

Guhle has been playing the top pair for a year now. He's a LD, what is the logic behind saying nobody's ready to take over when he's literally doing this, just in a harder spot, aka on his off side ?

 

[1909]

Guhle has been playing the top pair for a year now. He's a LD, what is the logic behind saying nobody's ready to take over when he's literally doing this, just in a harder spot, aka on his off side ?

No one gonna pile up 63 points and a be much needed vet leader on the team. Matheson is a keeper for his production, leadership and very affordable salary.

 

[Mrb1p]

We currently have two veterans in Matheson and Savard. It would be a bad idea to leave the team to our youngsters without any veteran leadership.

One of the two will be traded soon. I say they move Savard first by next years deadline. This will give some leeway for Matheson to stay longer.

Realistically we are keeping Matheson for 2 years unless we trade for another good veteran defenseman.

Kovacevic is 27, Harris has 150 games of experience, etc. There's no reason to move Savard, he's cheap, effective and he's a RD.

The main draw to moving Matheson is that he's a LD and his value is at its all time high.

No one gonna pile up 63 points and a much needed vet leader on the team. Matheson is a keeper for his production, leadership and very affordable salary.

Guhle had more points than Matheson at 5v5 this year. He could very well pile up 40-50 with PP time.

Hutson is defacto a top 10 PP QB in the league, he could pile up 20-30 points on the PP alone.

 

[1909]

Kovacevic is 27, Harris has 150 games of experience, etc. There's no reason to move Savard, he's cheap, effective and he's a RD.

The main draw to moving Matheson is that he's a LD and his value is at its all time high.


Guhle had more points than Matheson at 5v5 this year. He could very well pile up 40-50 with PP time.

Hutson is defacto a top 10 PP QB in the league, he could pile up 20-30 points on the PP alone.

You would trade him… But Habs management , who knows their players better than you and me, won’t. Just cut his icetime to 21 min. a game, and he will be more than fine.

 

[Mrb1p]

You would trade him… But Habs management , who knows their players better than you and me, won’t. Just cut his icetime to 21 min. a game, and he will be more than fine.

Then who of Hutson, Guhle and Xhekaj plays in Laval ? Without even mentionning Struble and Harris.

 

[Habs]

I agree. His 50 pts are wasted on a team like this

 

[Gustave]

Matheson does in fact have his highest value ever. So… ya, if a deal is there I pull the trigger. To turn Petry into all of that would be incredible value accretion.

 

[CDN24]

Kovacevic is 27, Harris has 150 games of experience, etc. There's no reason to move Savard, he's cheap, effective and he's a RD.

The main draw to moving Matheson is that he's a LD and his value is at its all time high.


Guhle had more points than Matheson at 5v5 this year. He could very well pile up 40-50 with PP time.

Hutson is defacto a top 10 PP QB in the league, he could pile up 20-30 points on the PP alone.

might be better to talk even strengrh MM had 62 points (28 on PP and 2 SH) so that leaves 32 at even strength - maybe some 4-4 and 3-3 in there.

Guhle had 22, Guhle not ready to replace MM's offense. maybe Hutson but why not have both. MM is still cheap. we don't know what his value is, is value is what someone will pay not what we think they should pay.

 

[JoelWarlord]

Again I just dunno what kind of deal would be out there. It's hard to envision 2 years of Matheson being worth more than 1.5 years of prime Jake Muzzin.

 

[le_sean]

There are other veterans than can be acquired for a much lower cost than what we could get for a 60+ points dman that makes less than 5M$.

Or you can just keep the 60 point defenceman making under $5m. They don’t exactly grow on trees or have contracts that good.

Either way, the point is he’s not kept around because he’s a local boy like you implied. He’s kept around because he’s pretty good.

 

[Mrb1p]

might be better to talk even strengrh MM had 62 points (28 on PP and 2 SH) so that leaves 32 at even strength - maybe some 4-4 and 3-3 in there.

Guhle had 22, Guhle not ready to replace MM's offense. maybe Hutson but why not have both. MM is still cheap. we don't know what his value is, is value is what someone will pay not what we think they should pay.

READ THIS IF YOU THINK MATHESON'S OFFENSE IS IRREPLACEABLE

Why ? Even strength means easy gimme points on the powerplay. Thats not hockey, it's very nice. There's a bulk of MMs points that come from there. The bulk of the game is played at 5v5 and the fact is Guhle exploded everything Matheson has done, while playing on his off-side for the first time in his career. He's the top pair LD, not Matheson.

Even so, 22 "even strength" points when you basically don't play 3v3 and 4v4 to 32 when you play all of it. It doesn't really take advanced calculus to understand that Mathesons offense is overrated when compared to Guhles. Matheson played 220% of Guhles ice-time at 3v3 and 4v4 and all he could muster was... 10 more points ? And somehow his offensive is great ? To note that 5 of those 10 more points were secondary assists, while Guhle only had 1 secondary assist.

It's really not that far off to say that Guhle, Hutson and Struble/Xhekaj can replace Mathesons impact without missing a beat. The problem is the RD side, of course, because Savard and Guhle are the only ones able to even defend. The goal would be to take the money and the assets and use it to shore up other roster weaknessses, like the RD top 4 spot, the 3rd line C and the 2nd line W.

 

[themilosh]

Unpopular opinion because the expected return is usually too high.

What return are you expecting?

Whichever team loses first round bc of lack of sciring threat from D/PP will be under pressure to address in off season. To a playoff bound team whos window is now, MM is a perfect fit, vet with low cap hit.
That should yield a grade A prospect and low 1st. Hopefully LAK blow it again, that team must go all in and has some issues that Uncle Hugo can make work.

 

[HuGort]

I know people will not like this but here it goes...

Buy low sell high, it works with money and it works with sports.

Huberdeau 115pts season? Traded to CGY... since then a 50pts player

Karlsson 101pts season? Traded to Pittsburgh now gets about 50pts

It works as well for pending aging UFA's coming off great seasons that team don't re-sign like our former Captain Pacioretty who never produced like he did with us with a new large contract he got...

Habs are loaded on the D with blue chip prospect. We are still 2-3 years of being a cup contender. Matheson is coming off a career year 62pts season at 30yrs old and signed at 2 more years at 4.8M$. Trading him in the off season would be the smart thing to do, he will likely be a 30-40 pts D for another year or two at best, we could get something good for him now. Agree? disagree?

Other unpopular opinions?

If we get over whelmed then yes. But I think Matheson will be here until summer 2025 at least. He likes it here and Habs have young defense.

If we can get big return and trade Matheson I would sign a UFA veteran defensive defenseman.

 

[Sorinth]

Kind of hard to take your point seriously when you say the Pacioretty never produced like he did for us after getting traded when his top 3 seasons in terms of PPG were with Vegas and he only stopped producing because of a major injury.

 

[Kimota]

Maybe we should put an S at the end of Opinion and sticking it. So it could become a thread about all the unpop opinions. I got to a movie forum and that's we do over there.

 

[Apfel Struble]

The problem with Matheson is that he's a good #1 D on a bad team, but a bad one on a great team. He shines when being the man and helps in transition despite his defence flaws. On a good team, he's bumped to the 2nd pair and his value drops massively

So, in order to maximize the return, we'd need several weak teams wanting to climb in the standing or to insulate their young defencemen to try and get him and outbid each others. So that leave us what, Anaheim? Arizona? Philadelphia? Chicago? I don't know, I don't feel like one these would want to cough major assets for Matheson. Contenders would be less interested in him too I feel since they already have their 1st pair figured out

Also, for all his flaws, Matheson is still one of the most impactful player on the Habs. Trading him for futures could be demoralizing for the room, it would have to be for another good player. I'm not against if an great offer comes along, but it's one hell of risky trade

 

[Mrb1p]

Whichever team loses first round bc of lack of sciring threat from D/PP will be under pressure to address in off season. To a playoff bound team whos window is now, MM is a perfect fit, vet with low cap hit.
That should yield a grade A prospect and low 1st. Hopefully LAK blow it again, that team must go all in and has some issues that Uncle Hugo can make work.

LA is a good one that I didn't think about. They have a bunch of prospect and are definitely in the win now more than ever with every game passing Kopitars retirement is coming. They might want to give it a go one last time. Not sure Mikey Anderson is the top pair they need, even if he's pretty good. It works cash wise too, as Arvidsson is coming off the books and he's paid exactly the same, maybe they ask us to retain 25% or something, which I'd be fine.

Clarke is probably off the table as he'd come in for them to replace Roy on the 2nd pairing, that leaves us with Laferriere, Spence and prospects or picks. Then we can leverage those assets to get a RD, a 3C or a middle 6 winger.

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

The only reason they won't do it is he's a West Island boy. Sa prend dé p'tits gâ d'ché nous icitte.

I personally agree 100% with the buy low sell high in his case. His value will never be higher, yet he's still MAB-level defensively.

Let's not make the same mistake we made with Anderson.

The only possible mistake with Anderson was MB trading for him.

LA is a good one that I didn't think about. They have a bunch of prospect and are definitely in the win now more than ever with every game passing Kopitars retirement is coming. They might want to give it a go one last time. Not sure Mikey Anderson is the top pair they need, even if he's pretty good. It works cash wise too, as Arvidsson is coming off the books and he's paid exactly the same, maybe they ask us to retain 25% or something, which I'd be fine.

Clarke is probably off the table as he'd come in for them to replace Roy on the 2nd pairing, that leaves us with Laferriere, Spence and prospects or picks. Then we can leverage those assets to get a RD, a 3C or a middle 6 winger.

Do they have any prospects?

 

[Darz]

I guess we would have to know the return before we know if selling Matheson this offseason was a good idea.
I’m not against trading him, but I’m also not against keeping him.

 

[River Meadow]

I know people will not like this but here it goes...

Buy low sell high, it works with money and it works with sports.

Huberdeau 115pts season? Traded to CGY... since then a 50pts player

Karlsson 101pts season? Traded to Pittsburgh now gets about 50pts

It works as well for pending aging UFA's coming off great seasons that team don't re-sign like our former Captain Pacioretty who never produced like he did with us with a new large contract he got...

Habs are loaded on the D with blue chip prospect. We are still 2-3 years of being a cup contender. Matheson is coming off a career year 62pts season at 30yrs old and signed at 2 more years at 4.8M$. Trading him in the off season would be the smart thing to do, he will likely be a 30-40 pts D for another year or two at best, we could get something good for him now. Agree? disagree?

Other unpopular opinions?

idk how anyone doesn't agree with this, and it shouldn't be unpopular..

We need to cash in on Matheson NOW.

 

[calder candidate]

idk how anyone doesn't agree with this, and it shouldn't be unpopular..

We need to cash in on Matheson NOW.

What are you getting (what type of value) for Matheson now vs. the next two TDL?