I am in AWE at what he just did... - Matheson EXTENSION coming?

I am in awe at what I am witnessing right now as Habs prospect Philip Erickson has been doing the absolute impossible as in just two games this year in the SHL. He has surpassed his point total from 37 games last year with another three-point outing. He now leads the entire SHL in scoring as a 20-year-old player. We get to dive into everything Philip Erickson has been doing that has blown our minds but not just that. We have some talk about a Mike Matheson extension and a very interesting take from an insider about the whole situation that plus much more all coming up on this episode of Habs Digest but we're gonna start somewhere else Jesse and let's start right here and it's Martin St. Louis talking about Arbor Jackeye and he said actually well yo we'll start with this one he said look Arbor he knows I love him of course perception can sometimes cloud things he's a young defender playing defense in the NHL is one of the most difficult positions especially when you're young with all the anticipation and everything but went on to say his biggest asset is his physicality don't want to take that away from doesn't mean you'll have an opportunity to be physical every game if you're only looking for that you'll take yourself out of the game but it's normal for a young defenseman and there's going to be aggression I prefer him to be aggressive it's easier to hold the guy back than to tell him I'd like him to be more aggressive so first off I love what he's saying about Arbor and his game and I think this is incredibly important and incredibly on point about what Arbor Jackeye brings to the team but I also think this points to maybe a bigger theme Jesse of like Marty's like no matter how much he likes guys he's going to hold him accountable if they're not doing what he expects him to do and again Marty says a lot of the right things but I think this just reinforces that it definitely does and I think as long as that accountability is kind of going across the board but I think we got to be fair like to say Arbor Jackeye is getting a little bit more tough love why though he's maybe a little bit younger than a Matheson he's a little bit more malleable where it's not completely set where it's maybe worth it to kind of go in a little bit and get those good habits later on and I think that's really this is going to be for the benefit of Arbor Jackeye as a result I believe that he can earn a full-time job with the Montreal Canadiens this year but it's going to be tough like Struble his competition is also a very capable NHL caliber defenseman we know we have Reimbacher coming up on Engstrom's not too far away there here but yeah definitely Jackeye has gotten a lot better at playing the game in front of him and not really forcing things but I think we need to factor into all this Josh when we're kind of ranking where does Arbor Jackeye rank in kind of Martin St. Louis's graces it's been a little bit of kind of like a cloudy area sometimes it's like I think what Arbor did last year in the playoffs really reinforced his value not just to Martin St. Louis but also to management of his value of his very specific role and in fact how it's so needed on this team and I think it would be an ideal world if he could really own that and again I think it'd be even for the better of the Montreal Canadiens to really take over that sixth position by just on defense that full-time job of just leaning in to what he does best that is how I feel the Montreal Canadiens can be at that best version of themselves we know David Savard is gone they need somebody playing that physical game in front of the net and I feel like Arbor Jackeye is best suited to really provide this Habs team with what they need. Absolutely and again like I could see him carving out a similar kind of role I feel like I brought this up before but like to Joel Edmondson but with a more physical edge because like Edmondson was so good at playing in front of the net knocking people down during like you know the playoffs or whatever he was out there right the dude was sending pretty nasty cross checks people were afraid to kind of go near him a lot of the time and you know he had maybe more of an offensive upside at times though but like Arbor even has a pretty hard shot like there's there's a role there for him and again like you said there's a lot of competition with these AHL guys probably looking like Engstrom and Reimbacher will start the year in Laval at this point but you really never know and Struble of course is so so so good but leave your thoughts down below and what Marty had to say about Jackeye and where you see Jackeye's long-term fix I know we got a lot of opinions about him I think he'll be around for a while but maybe you don't agree we'd love to hear from you down below but let's move on to a different left-hand shot defense but this one's a lot more polarizing I think because Mike Matheson as we know I mean look if we take a look at this decor again now this is again not necessarily accurate it's just Puckpedia guessing but we're gonna know in training camp very very soon because that's right around the corner but Mike Matheson's future has been one of the biggest question marks with this team because he's a great trade ship but he also wants to stick around and Marco Livier-Baudouin points this out he said Mike Matheson confirms that he wants to stay around Montreal a little longer but he's leaving it up to his agent but obviously it depends on the contract that he's going to demand would he ask maybe would he agree for a hometown discount you know you never really know if there's an injury he can move up the lineup or someone could come up from so it's it's a little bit interesting but to go further on what Marco Livier-Baudouin had to say he said look he's not he can definitely bring something positive to the team if he accepts something around four seasons an AAV of about four and a half million dollars I sign him as soon as possible but it's obviously possible that his demands will be higher and that someone else will offer him more and I think that last point there Jesse about someone else offering him more is very realistic because let's be honest Mike Matheson for all his shortcomings is still a great puck moving defenseman a fantastic skater can quarterback your power play and we saw the points potential 60 point season and I think there's a lot of teams that'd be willing to pay him for that and I think Montreal's not in a position to give him any more than maybe again that four four and a half mil yes the cap's going up but like I don't know Jesse I feel like this talk is coming more and more about Matheson about him extending I think the more we talk about it the less I see a long-term future with Mike Matheson here because even I don't think I'd pay him four and a half million even if the cap goes up a ton because like we've said so many times before having that locked up in your bottom pairing like long term it's just not really a good idea in my eyes very interesting to know though that like you know still quality players in their own right are willing to stay in Montreal and even take a pay cut in order to do so I think really speaks to what we're building right now and really how special it is and I love the mentality which is really just so um emblematic of the Habs right now team first uh type of guy take a discount which we've seen just throughout this locker room right now uh to make it happen that being said it's like even with a discount um I think it's just like more of a play style fit like more than anything else and I think that Matheson will have a better year this year by not having to play as much being probably put in a better position to succeed that being said is like we're having like three out of our six defensemen and all leaning heavily towards offense and I even said with the Dobson acquisition like I'm okay bringing Dobson on I just think we have too many we just need to ship out one of our d-men that's really offensive and no I'm not talking about Lane Hudson of course that would obviously lean out Mike Matheson I just think that this is a young decoy while they're young I think has the experience to be able to bridge that gap now here going forward and we need to remember about the Habs what they need and assessing long-term fits one of the biggest issues for the Habs is their goals that they allowed against last year that's one of the metrics they're going to really want to improve upon this year in order to get in the playoffs and for me just having three out of your six defensemen lean heavily towards the offense for me just isn't a sound strategy to really reduce our goals against going this season I think Matheson knows himself that being said he's going to need to play more of a defensive game this year if he's somehow able to maybe do it it's like kind of like a Kirby dog situation if you could maybe kind of find the role and really lean into it like there is a world because I mean we like Mike Matheson he can skate I just think there's kind of some repeatable things and maybe in his game which I think you know as we're looking to grow we might want to break the mold on that here going forward but interesting to know I don't want to rule it out I don't think it's the best fit stylistically but we're going to need to see what type of game he's bringing to the table this year what type of game and what kind of dough like again it really does just come down to that like at this point but you know there is the question you'll see people say like yeah I agree it would be a luxury to have someone of Matheson's skill level on your third pairing that is a luxury however is it better to have Matheson on your third pairing at four and a half million dollars still being really effective and like you know that's awesome depth or having a guy like Jack Geyer-Struble who can be a bit more physical play that kind of different role at about a third of the cap hit so that's what it comes down to but again I mean you look at the money the money got to go somewhere with Hudson's extension coming up at some point probably around nine ten million dollars maybe less again eight and a half nine who knows at this point Ghouli's at a good price but Dobbs nine and a half mil there's a lot of question marks so leave your thoughts on this down below would you be okay with a hometown discount and if so how low or how high I guess would you go in terms of AAV love to hear from you but let's move on to the final thing today because I am look I am kind of shocked by what I'm seeing here and I everyone is Philip Erickson it's like this is borderline impossible what he's doing so let's just start here again you can look at those projections because they're kind of funny to look at again it's just they're just extrapolating from two games times 26 but anyway projected to get 182 points this year very sustainable of course but he has three goals four assists now after a three assist game versus Brinas in their second game of the SHL season seven points in 37 SHL games last year Jesse he had six points even in 10 all svenskan the second league in Sweden he only had five points in 10 games seven points in two games is absolutely ridiculous so ridiculous that he's leading the entire SHL in scoring right now and look how young he is compared to everyone else a sixth round draft pick watching the actually let's play it here watching these plays yes that was a secondary assist but it sets up a tic-tac-toe this one putting the puck on the net he's creating opportunities every single time he's out there look another one there a nice little rebound goal I again like we've talked about Florian's jump and we were talking about Erickson I feel like every time we talk about him oh yes it's kind of crazy but we'll see when he finally slows down he literally hasn't from the moment that he started playing in the preseason to every preseason game to every champions hockey league game to now his first two SHL games this guy has literally only gotten better I want to know what he ate this summer Jesse this is one we've done it in a while can we get this guy over to our rookie camp just I know it's kind of basically finished here but um yeah just what he's doing right now he seems to really have turned a corner um in his development which is absolutely wild to see and like with that strong shot and those fundamentals like I'm almost thinking like this isn't a flash in the pan like he had that baseline skill to not only stay there but continue to get better over time because I mean if we're looking at some of these plays here for sure some secondary and some assists but like he's the one driving the play he's the one carrying the puck down he's then having the drop down pass and then here again driving the play and then lets us get it on net you don't score on none of the shots you don't take um here so again like he's the catalyst like he's the one really starting to play again driving the puck towards the net making good things happen um really as a result here so again we're gonna have to keep an eye on him it's like if he's able to keep up this pace but like you have to think Josh like if he's able to continue even close to this clip for this season do you think that we're seeing him in either Montreal or Laval this time next year? I mean like you have to consider that possibility right like this is just again like I I want to say this is not sustainable because it kind of would be insane to claim that it is but if he can even be like near a point per game in the SHL that's beyond impressive like like the SHL I mean you know Oliver Kapanen was up there near the league lead when he was over there but like there's all these kind of things like good prospects that are not necessarily good NHLers can put up good numbers though you do see where is it here you see Jakob Silverberg 35-year-old Jakob Silverberg also has six points in two games he was a pretty good NHL player but again it's like looking at the comparables here like I don't know it's kind of nuts like you said his shot is pretty good it didn't really display it necessarily today but he did in the preseason did in his first game again getting that hat trick in game number one uh that's in Swedish that's actually kind of full of borders hat trick there you go that there I know Swedish um but you're absolutely right like I think there's a world Jesse like I think LaValle would be a great starting point though but maybe he wants to stay in Lulea I mean would it shock you if this dude was like borderline like NHL ready at some point like in the next year or two I know that's an insane question an insane like extrapolation based on like a maybe a month sample size here but like sometimes guys just have it and it just clicks his size you know he's not huge he's like five eleven six feet tall he's not the heaviest guy so kind of all the signs were pointing to this sixth round pick being a little small but like the numbers kind of don't lie I'm excited to see maybe even some kind of international play from him soon maybe to even get a little better of an idea maybe some kind of like I don't know like world championship next year that could be cool absolutely to kind of get a feel on where this guy is really at but I absolutely feel like he has a skill set even for right now coming over to LaValle for me that just seems like a skill set where he would even be an impact player on LaValle which is very interesting I think that it's like a player if he's continuing along this place where he's somebody keep an eye on fanning camp like does he kind of maybe get a spot on that fourth type of fourth line of course I would love to see him in LaValle I think that's probably the most likely situation for him next year but I think he could be ready to make that jump as of next year the quality of hockey as we know with Oliver Cappen at the SHL is quite high so I think that we're seeing a lot of skills here which are quite transferable which again just have another prospect it's completely showing out come out of the woodwork and just doing amazing things like it sounds surprising Josh it's just we got so many prospects doing this right now that it's really starting to feel par for the course which is just showing you know how lucky and really calculated this Montreal Canadiens franchise is just think like five six seven years ago we see this kind of stuff I think us as Habs fans would be like oh my god this guy's now one of our better prospects but now we have such a like a treasure trove of prospects that like this is just some hey let's keep an eye on this maybe he could play for LaValle and I love that I love the expectations are not too high on this but like it's so cool to watch our boys like all seemingly taking that step maybe not all but so many of them even Bogdan had an assist today by the way it was on an empty netter but like anyway interesting stuff like that leave your thoughts on Erickson all this stuff down below we'd love to hear from you that'll do it for this episode of Habs Digest I can't wait for the season I can't wait to see more of these young guys showing out if you enjoyed and if you want to stay up to date on all the latest stuff just like this hit that free subscribe button down below we're almost at 25,000 thank you for tuning in every single day I'm Josh Gausman my co-host Jesse Poirier we'll catch in the next one