The thing that stood out the most in the Montreal Canadiens’ announcement that defenseman Mike Matheson was the team’s 2026 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy nominee was a singular stat. He has scored a career-high 34 even-strength points this season (with just one of his total 37 coming on the power play).
That his amount of shorthanded points (two) outnumber how many he’s notched on the man advantage is a huge statement regarding how the Habs value him… or rather how they envision the veteran defenseman being most valuable. Keep in mind, a few years ago the Canadiens nominated Joel Armia and the Finnish forward wasn’t long for the organization, because, heading into eventual unrestricted free agency, he just didn’t fit into the team’s future plans. So, the Masterton is independent of a player’s worth to his team.
Matheson Won’t Win Masterton
Matheson, even though very much like Armia in that he won’t win, is an exception here. No one’s questioning his level of dedication to the sport or perseverance, which is what the trophy rewards. It’s whether or not the Canadiens are utilizing him in the best way that is open to debate, and they’ve made that the whole basis behind his nomination.
This is a player who, before Lane Hutson, was the team’s premier offensive defenseman, albeit during some of the team’s recent lean seasons between 2022-24. When he scored a career-high and undeniably upper-echelon 62 points in 2023-24, even then he scored “just” 32 even-strength points. His continued offensive success at five on five (and four on four and at three on three in overtime) goes to show he’s still capable of putting up significant points and that he remains a viable power play quarterback. However, the fact the Canadiens chose him to effectively oversee the penalty kill, with him averaging an NHL-leading 3:55 per game shorthanded, eliminates that as an option from the equation.
For context, Shea Weber, as an elite net-clearing presence, led the 2020-21 team that went to the Stanley Cup Final with 2:53 in shorthanded ice time per game (2:57 per game in the postseason). Granted, he was also a power-play threat, necessitating that the Canadiens split his time accordingly (2:22), but Ben Chiarot was next up on the penalty kill with only 2:44 per game (0:14 on the power play). While that team was only 78.5% effective while a man down during that contracted regular season, its success rate jumped to 91.8% in the playoffs, which can serve as a reason to be optimistic this specific team can similarly turn it around heading into the postseason (77.7%).
Canadiens’ Penalty Kill Improving Bit by Bit
To the Canadiens’ credit, they last gave up a power-play goal on March 29, in their 3-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. They’ve since successfully killed 14 penalties in a row. However, they’ve also gone through strong stretches before. Soon after they re-acquired Phillip Danault, they went through a span of 24 penalty kills during which they only allowed a single goal.
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Nevertheless, it eventually fell back down to Earth. As a result, it’s hard to argue the penalty kill has been an overall strong suit for the Canadiens, making it an odd decision to continue to lean so heavily on Matheson, when the special-teams unit has only objectively been successful one of the four years he’s been with the team (2024-25; 80.9%).
It’s odder still the Canadiens would celebrate Matheson this season for “redefining his style of play” and “showing an entirely different side to his game” when he played 3:28 per game while shorthanded to similarly lead the team that aforementioned 2024-25 season. If it’s a case of trying to keep with a recipe for success, they might consider a happy medium, with Matheson having played 1:57 on the power play last season and it as a unit having clicked at 20.1%. Then again, a retiring stay-at-home David Savard figured heavily on the penalty kill as well, and it’s abundantly clear the team is in far better shape having for all intents and purposes replaced him (and then some) with Noah Dobson, who took on a large portion of Matheson’s power play time this season, after the Habs traded for him last summer.
The Canadiens’ 102 points in the standings are nothing at which to scoff. They’re clearly headed in the right direction and Matheson is a huge part of that based on, if nothing else, his team-leading 24:13 of ice time per game. That stat alone wouldn’t necessarily justify a Masterton nomination, though. The one at the top of the piece doesn’t either. Taken as a whole, it all just shows beyond a reasonable doubt that Matheson is, simply put, valuable, however the Habs decide to play him. That the Canadiens extended Matheson for five years earlier this season (for $6 million per) is a greater indication of the degree they value him than the nomination itself. Unlike Armia, it’s clear he’ll be sticking around for a long while longer.
That’s the main cause for celebration here.
