With the 2025 offseason creeping to an end and the 2025-26 season training camps opening soon, there are questions facing the Montreal Canadiens and general manager (GM) Kent Hughes. How they are answered will go a long way in taking the next step of the rebuild. Here is a look at a few of the most pressing questions going into the 2025-26 season.
Who Will Be the First Canadiens Player to Be Traded?
While Montreal was far more competitive than expected last season and made the playoffs, they are still building towards a long-term Stanley Cup contender. Because of that, they will be open to trading away picks, prospects, or even NHL roster players if it takes them closer to their goal. So who will be the first player to be dealt in 2025-26?
For some, the answer may be Mike Matheson, who became somewhat expendable with the addition of Noah Dobson and the stellar play of the 2025 Calder Trophy winner as the NHL’s top rookie, Lane Hutson. A look at a future Canadiens top four shows that Matheson’s time in Montreal could be coming to an end as Hutson, Dobson, Kaiden Guhle, and, eventually, David Reinbacher develop into a Stanley Cup-contending blue line. That’s even without adding names for the bottom pairing, such as Adam Engstrom, Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble, and that is just the NHL-ready prospects under contract; there are more prospects that could end up taking an NHL job down the line.
For Hughes, Matheson could be the cornerstone in a deal to finally acquire the second line centre that many NHL clubs are hunting for. But it will likely have to wait for the trade deadline, at the earliest, as NHL clubs begin to get separated in the standings among buyers and sellers. The value for a veteran defenceman who can play any role and do so playing over 24 minutes per game is high, especially when he is being paid $4.875 million. Like many offence-first defenders, he does come with some defensive gaffes, yet he is an excellent skater who uses that mobility to cover for many of those errors. But, at 31 years old, along with diminishing opportunities in Montreal, he may be willing to walk away as a free agent.
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That makes it even more important for Hughes to maximize the value of such an asset, especially if it can help fill a need. For now, Matheson is a stabilizing force on a young and…
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