Cowan: No-trade clause was key for family-focused Canadien Mike Matheson
Mike Matheson loves playing for the Canadiens.
That’s why it was so important for the 32-year-old defenceman to have a no-trade clause included in the five-year, US$30-million contract extension he signed last November that runs through the 2030-31 season.
Matheson has a full no-movement clause through the first three years of the contract. In the fourth year he has a 14-team no-trade list and in the final year he has a five-team no-trade list,
“It was very important for me,” Matheson said about having some assurance he would be staying in Montreal. “I wanted to commit to being here and I wanted to be here. That was definitely a big piece for on the ice, but as well for off-the-ice family stuff. Knowing that my kids don’t have to move.”
Matheson and his wife,
, have two young children. They met when they were both playing hockey at Boston College. Pfalzer, who won a gold medal with Team USA at the 2018 Olympics as well as four IIHF world championships, is from Buffalo and that’s where the family has a summer home.
Matheson’s parents, Rod and Marg, still live in the Pointe-Claire home where their three children — including Kelly and Kenny — grew up. Matheson grew up cheering for the Canadiens along with the rest of his family, and his favourite players were Saku Koivu and Andrei Markov.
His heart and his family are in Montreal.
Matheson admits he was nervous at last year’s NHL trade deadline, wondering if he might get moved.
“I’d say last year was probably the most that I kind of started thinking about it in my whole career,” said Matheson, who is in his 11th NHL season after being selected by the Florida Panthers
in the first round (23rd overall) of the 2012 NHL Draft
. “But even then, I feel like it’s kind of easy to park it and just keep playing because you’re right in the middle of the thick of the season, so you’re playing every night, and that’s pretty distracting.”
Matheson has been traded twice — both times during the off-season. The Panthers traded him to Pittsburgh on Sept. 14https://app.slack.com/client/T0D7ZP126/C041LJGD7H7, 2020, and
the Canadiens acquired him from the Penguins on July 16, 2022.
What advice does he have for players who might be worried about getting traded ahead of Friday’s 3 p.m. NHL trade deadline?
“I guess it’s easier said than done, but control what you can control,” he said. “That’s out of your hands, and when you realize that, you can be playing great and that might mean that somebody else really wants you. Just keep doing what you do best and let the chips fall where they may.”
It’s very possible that Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes won’t make any moves for the second straight year on trade deadline day. But Hughes has added several players since last year’s trade deadline, including Noah Dobson, Zachary Bolduc, Alexandre Texier, Phillip Danault and Joe Veleno. Rookies Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen have also joined the roster.
The Canadiens hold the first wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with a 33-18-9 record heading into Friday’s game in Anaheim against the Ducks
(9 p.m., TSN2, RDS).
They are 12 points ahead of their pace from last season, when they had a 29-26-5 record after 60 games and went on to make the playoffs for the first time in four years.
Mike Matheson fait 3-1 Canadiens! 🚨#AllCaps c. #GoHabsGo 🏒 pic.twitter.com/G32QsbSw8P
— RDS (@RDSca) March 1, 2026
Head coach Martin St. Louis likes the culture the Canadiens have been able to build in the locker room.
“It’s hard to describe culture,” St. Louis told reporters covering the team in San Jose this week. “It’s a feel. And I feel like something that we’ve addressed early when I came in and we talked about it, we worked on it. And I feel like it gets to a certain point where the culture takes life. I feel like anybody who’s been added to the group, they feel something — whether it’s camaraderie, whether it’s selfless actions. Whatever it is, there’s a feeling amongst our group that they enjoy coming to the rink each and every day.
“I feel as a staff we’ve been very process driven, where we (aren’t) necessarily so negative when we lose or so positive when we win,” St. Louis added. “We just bring some truth each and every day and I think that helps us grow and move forward. And while you do that, I think you create an environment where the guys can feel good about themselves and they can be themselves, too.
“But they all live and behave with the same core value. It starts with the individual. I think as a staff, we try and steer we’re trying to create this environment. But I feel like the fact that we have not only just good players, but we have really good humans. So when you have good humans, you’re able to create this environment. Because you can try to create this environment, but it’s going to be really hard if you don’t have good humans.”
Matheson is a big part of that culture — and will continue to be.
