Canadiens' Playoff Hopes Hinge on Trade For Ducks' Mason McTavish Amid NHL Rumors

For the first time since 2021, the Montreal Canadiens played playoff hockey in 2025 and will look to return to the postseason again next year. In order to ensure that happens, the team still has areas of its roster to upgrade, including the need for a top-six center.

Enter Anaheim's Mason McTavish, one of the top trade targets this offseason.

David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported that the Canadiens are one of four teams interested in acquiring the 22-year-old, and understandably so. In 76 games last season, McTavish scored 22 goals, added 30 assists, and averaged the most ice time of his career at 16:52.

Those were all career highs as the Ontario native continued to show flashes of future stardom.

Adding him to a Montreal team that needs center depth, which also got a breakout season from first-line center 25-year-old Nick Suzuki (30 goals, 59 assists, and 89 points), would give the franchise two young foundational players to build around for the next decade.

It would also give the team a significant boost behind Suzuki, with McTavish's numbers eclipsing all other centers on the Canadiens roster. He also had more ice time than the others.

The team can afford the deal in the area of $7-8 million that McTavish wants, and it has veteran talent that can be traded in return for him, such as Patrick Laine and Mike Matheson, making the deal the most feasible of any of the four teams mentioned by Pagnotta.

That McTavish fills a need, has a ton of upside, and could form a one-two punch in the top six with Suzuki, makes this a no-brainer for a team that re-established itself as a playoff team a season ago and will be looking to confirm its Stanley Cup contender status in the coming year.