Matthew Beniers was photographed this morning at Montréal-Trudeau airport, sitting in a departure gate alone, and the question was immediate.
The image surfaced on X just before noon, posted by MaximeTruman with a simple caption:
Beniers was spotted at the airport early Wednesday. "Pourquoi?" he wrote. Why?
That single word landed like a flare gun in the middle of a quiet offseason.
Beniers is 23 years old and under contract with the Kraken at $7,142,857 per year. He finished this past season with 20 goals, 30 assists, and 50 points in 82 games.
Those are fine numbers, not great ones. He went minus-8 on the year and managed just 1 goal and 4 assists over his last 10 games.
For a player carrying that kind of cap number, the production gap is real.
Seattle finished 34-37-11, ranked 27th in the entire league with 79 points. The Kraken went 2-8 in their final 10 games and dropped their last three in a row.
Beniers in Montreal: trade visit, medical, or something else entirely?
That rebuild-level finish, combined with new GM Jason Botterill and head coach Lane Lambert both installed last spring, screams roster evaluation. Big contracts on underwhelming teams tend to generate trade conversations in June.
The Canadiens, meanwhile, finished sixth overall at 48-24-10 with 106 points under Martin St-Louis. They beat Seattle in both meetings this season, 5-4 in overtime at home and 4-3 in overtime on the road.
Montreal has cap space, a young core, and ambition. Beniers could play with Ivan Demidov and become a valuable 2nd line center.
Does that mean this is trade-related? Not necessarily. Airport sightings lead to wild conclusions fast, and this business has seen plenty of those.
But the timing matters. We're deep into the offseason evaluation window, right in the heart of when GMs talk, visit prospects, and quietly test the trade market.
A 23-year-old centre at $7.1 million who posted 50 points on a 27th-place team is exactly the kind of asset that generates calls. Whether Montreal made one is the question nobody has answered yet.
The photo shows Beniers alone, relaxed, eating a snack. No entourage, no urgency. Just a young NHLer sitting in a Canadian airport in June, waiting for a flight.
Where it was going, nobody said.
That answer might come soon. Or it might not, and this becomes another offseason ghost story.
-
Either way, Lane Lambert and Jason Botterill have decisions to make in Seattle, and not all of them will be comfortable ones.
Should the Canadiens pursue a trade for Matthew Beniers this offseason?
Also read on Markerzone.com:
Elliotte Friedman just changed everything for the Oilers in the Darnell Nurse trade saga
