{"id":320598,"date":"2025-12-01T13:17:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T13:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320598\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T13:17:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T13:17:37","slug":"matheson-signs-5-year-30-million-contract-with-canadiens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320598\/","title":{"rendered":"Matheson signs 5-year, $30 million contract with Canadiens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Matheson<\/a> signed a five-year, $30 million contract with the Montreal Canadiens on Friday. It has an average annual value of $6 million.<\/p>\n

“I think I can be honest with myself and know that there is maybe more money elsewhere, but that’s not my priority,” Matheson said. “It’s really to be part of this group. I think the biggest thing I want to do is win, and I think I give myself the best chance to do that here. And in saying that, I think the most important thing is also to have enough [cap space] for the team to keep the guys we have and maybe get more in the years to come. … I’d say the third thing is the family side as well.”<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old defenseman, who could have become an unrestricted free agent July 1, has 15 points (four goals, 11 assists) in 24 games this season and is plus-12. He is in the final year of an eight-year, $39 million contract ($4.875 AAV) he signed with the Florida Panthers on Oct. 7, 2017.<\/p>\n

“It feels good,” Matheson said after a 4-1 win at the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday. “I’m really excited to know that I’m going to be part of this team for at least five years. That was really my goal, so knowing that it’s done [is good].”<\/p>\n

Selected by Florida in the first round (No. 23) of the 2012 NHL Draft, Matheson has 280 points (78 goals, 202 assists) in 651 regular-season games for the Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Canadiens, and eight points (one goal, seven assists) in 25 Stanley Cup Playoff games.<\/p>\n

“It’s a great move by the organization to finalize this deal now,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “He’s a big piece of our team. To have him for five more years, it helps a coach.”<\/p>\n

NHL.com independent correspondent Paul Delos Santos contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Matheson signed a five-year, $30 million contract with the Montreal Canadiens on Friday. It has an average…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-320598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}