This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Mike Matheson
Montreal Canadiens Defense
25:05 a night — the heaviest workload on the club — and a 47.2 per cent chance share.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | FLA | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.0 | 17:32 |
| 2016-17 | FLA | 81 | 7 | 10 | 17 | -5 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 179 | 3.9 | 21:03 |
| 2017-18 | FLA | 81 | 10 | 17 | 27 | -1 | 61 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 167 | 6.0 | 21:20 |
| 2018-19 | FLA | 75 | 8 | 19 | 27 | -24 | 44 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 129 | 6.2 | 22:19 |
| 2019-20 | FLA | 59 | 8 | 12 | 20 | -1 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 104 | 7.7 | 18:02 |
| 2020-21 | PIT | 44 | 5 | 11 | 16 | +9 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 86 | 5.8 | 18:38 |
| 2021-22 | PIT | 74 | 11 | 20 | 31 | +12 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 140 | 7.9 | 18:48 |
| 2022-23 | MTL | 48 | 8 | 26 | 34 | +7 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 126 | 6.3 | 24:27 |
| 2023-24 | MTL | 82 | 11 | 51 | 62 | -24 | 58 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 187 | 5.9 | 25:33 |
| 2024-25 | MTL | 80 | 6 | 25 | 31 | -6 | 51 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 149 | 4.0 | 25:05 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 627 | 74 | 191 | 265 | -32 | 360 | 8 | 2 | 14 | 1271 | 5.8 | 21:52 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
6 goals and 25 assists in 80 games for 31 points, minus-6, on 25:05 a night — the heaviest workload on the club — and 149 shots.
47.2 per cent at five-on-five, the 25th percentile, over 1,417 minutes. His on-ice goals were 50-56 against an expected 58.3-65.2, so the goaltending helped by 9 and the underlying play was genuinely poor.
The Finesse Game
The skating is excellent and it is the reason he plays 25 minutes. He carries the puck out of trouble, joins a rush, and covers ground defensively that most defencemen cannot.
149 shots and 6 goals; the release is ordinary. 25 assists at 25 minutes a night is a low return and the puck decisions are the problem — he attempts the difficult play at the wrong moment and the turnovers happen in dangerous places.
The Physical Game
6-2 and 196, and he defends with feet rather than weight. He does not clear a crease and is beaten in board battles by stronger forwards.
51 penalty minutes over 80 games is a high rate and it is the tell of a defenceman who is beaten and reaching.
The Intangibles
A first-round pick, three organisations, and a career of playing enormous minutes on clubs that have nobody better.
At 31 the projection is a second-pair defenceman being used as a first. The arrival of Noah Dobson should reduce the workload, which is the single most useful thing the club did this summer.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,417 minutes
- Expected goals
- 47.2%
- 25th pct
- Shot attempts
- 47.1%
- 25th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 50 for, 56 against. Expected: 58.3 and 65.2.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 22 points above where the numbers do. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 72 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 1417 minutes at five-on-five
- Lane Hutson33%
- Kaiden Guhle16%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- MTL took 48.6% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 47.2% — 1.4 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,417 minutes at five-on-five — 96th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nick Suzuki | 46.7% | 47.6% | 51.0% |
| Cole Caufield | 46.8% | 47.5% | 49.5% |
| Juraj Slafkovský | 45.6% | 48.1% | 50.2% |
46.7% together, 47.6% for him apart and 51.0% for Suzuki apart. Suzuki was better away from him while his own share held, which is a mark against him more than for him.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
214 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 6 of them goals. His median goal came from 37 feet. 8% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 70% from beyond forty.