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Habs Trade Target: Mason McTavish

Originally posted on The Sick Podcast | By Nick Lariviere | Last updated Aug 6, 2025 12:26 PM ET

As mentioned yesterday, with the uncertainty of when Kirby Dach is ready, the 2nd line centre role may be up for grabs, and the Canadiens may need to look outside their organization to get the help they need. The best option, reportedly on the market, is Mason McTavish of the Anaheim Ducks.

The 22-year-old is coming off a career-high 22 goals and 52 points in 76 games with the Ducks. He is currently an RFA, and there doesn’t appear to be much traction on contract talks with the Ducks. McTavish will likely only get better over the next 2-3 years, which would make him an ideal 2C on any team.

The majority of news regarding the centre surrounds possible trade talks or signing an offer sheet. With the fact that the Ducks have $21 million in cap space, the offersheet method is very unlikely to work unless a team steps in and massively overpays somewhere in the area of above $10 million per year. Knowing the way Kent Hughes operates, that is very unlikely he would offer-sheet McTavish at a crazy cap hit to secure the player, the way the Carolina Hurricanes did to get Jesperi Kotkaniemi from the Habs in the summer of 2021.

In that sense, the only way the Canadiens will be able to acquire McTavish will be via trade. To get a player like McTavish, who has proven to improve every year that he’s played in the NHL, it won’t come cheap, and the Canadiens will likely need to part with a top prospect. The prospect that the Habs may need to move to get a young, established centre like McTavish is likely Michael Hage. There are a lot of fans who wouldn’t be willing to do that, but McTavish is only 3 years older and also a good fit age-wise with the Habs’ current core. Trading Hage definitely wouldn’t be a popular idea, but to look honestly, he’s likely the most logical prospect for both teams to find a deal around. If the Canadiens were to trade David Reinbacher, that would leave a massive hole for the future on defense.

Of course, Hughes should try other trade chips to get the deal done, such as a 1st rounder, Mike Matheson, and one of Joshua Roy / Olivier Kapanen or Owen Beck. However, the Ducks would likely rather receive quality rather than quantity for an already established talent in McTavish. Therefore, it will probably cost something like Michael Hage and Mike Matheson (to give them a player who can play now) or a 1st round pick for Mason McTavish.

McTavish and Nick Suzuki could form a strong 1-2 punch down the middle for about a decade as the Canadiens enter their contention window in the next few years. Sure, trading Michael Hage would be risky, but if you can get a young, established centre like McTavish in return, it will hurt less. Not to mention, McTavish could be the left-handed centre the Canadiens desperately need in their organization, as all their top centres are right-handed, including Hage.

Now, I’m not a GM, so I’m not sure of the exact value of these players on the open market, but often, unless the player requests a trade to get out (McTavish has yet to demand one to the media at least), then a team likely needs to overpay a bit to get a quality young player.

After trading Trevor Zegras away earlier this summer to the Philadelphia Flyers for what many believe is a mediocre return of Ryan Poehling, a 2nd and 4th-round pick, the Ducks seemed like they viewed McTavish as the future 2nd-line centre permanently behind Leo Carlsson. With that being said, if they do end up trading McTavish, it will come very expensive, and Habs fans better be ready to lose a player they may have thought was untouchable.

This begs the question of whether or not it’s worth trading for McTavish, given the expected high price it will be? Personally, McTavish is the only player on the market that I would consider trading Hage for. I do feel that this take may be controversial, but a potential perennial 60-point+ centre for the next decade is hard to pass up on. There’s also no guarantee that Hage becomes as good at the NHL as McTavish is now.

This article first appeared on The Sick Podcast and was syndicated with permission.

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