Only one CH player on The Athletic’s trade table

Only one Montreal Canadiens player makes the 30-player tradeable list of interest concocted by renowned The Athletic journalist Chris Johnston.

Defenseman Mike Matheson finds himself 19th on Johnston’s list. The latter specifies that Matheson is not a rental player, because he has one year remaining on his contract after this one.

“As he is a very good skater who obtained 62 points last season, the extra year increases his value,” mentions the reporter.

Matheson should therefore be considered a better bargaining chip than the Canadiens’ future unrestricted free agents, including David Savard, Joel Armia, Christian Dvorak, Jake Evans and Michael Pezzetta.

His departure could, however, give the team’s young defenders a hard time, knowing that he is the player most used by Martin St-Louis so far with an average ice time of 24 minutes and 28 seconds.

New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider sits atop Johnston’s list. He is followed by Brandon Saad of the St. Louis Blues and Ivan Provorov of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

National Hockey League teams could make trades in the coming days before the holiday roster freeze takes effect Dec. 20-27.

However, it would take a good offer to convince Kent Hughes to trade Matheson, the only experienced defenseman on the blue line alongside Savard.

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