Montreal Canadiens: Mike Matheson Right Choice For Leadership Role

The Montreal Canadiens gathered together for the first time to kick off the 2023-24 season yesterday.

It was just the team’s annual golf tournament, but it is always the unofficial beginning of the new hockey season. At the very least it is a sign that the new hockey season is fast approaching and we can finally start to schedule our lives around the Canadiens schedule once again.

The golf tournament really isn’t a huge source of news or information or entertainment for fans, but it is always great to see all the players back in Montreal and ready to begin a new season.

Oh, and we did get a bit of news during this year’s golf tournament as well. The team announced that Mike Matheson would be serving as an assistant captain for the upcoming season. There was a vacant role there since Joel Edmundson was traded earlier this summer, and someone needed to attach a letter to their sweater.

Picking Matheson was the absolute right choice. At 29 years old, he is already someone that many defensemen will be looking up to this season, with so many youngsters playing the position.

He has also been through some ups and downs in his NHL career already and would have some advice for younger players who may think things come easier after a couple seasons in the big leagues. Matheson played great with the Florida Panthers in his first couple seasons and earned a lengthy, eight year contract extension after playing just one full NHL season.

Then, he kinda struggled for a couple years. Three years after signing his big extension, he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in what was essentially a “change of scenery” type trade for Patric Hornqvist. Matheson played better in Pittsburgh but was then traded again, as the Pens thought Jeff Petry would be an upgrade last summer.

Now, after just one season where he played only 48 games, Matheson has really increased his value yet again. He scored eight goals and 34 points and erased some doubts about his defensive game in the process.

He started out his career great, then took his lumps for a while but learned from it and came out even better on the other side. The Canadiens have a lot of young defensemen that started their careers well, but can take some advice from Matheson on how to avoid some of the lulls in their career and just continue getting better each season.

That is what makes Matheson a perfect fit to be an assistant captain. Brendan Gallagher will remain as the other assistant while Nick Suzuki enters his second season as the team’s captain.

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