Why Vilsaint for Longstaff trade embodies where Toronto FC and CF Montréal are at in their rebuilds

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CF Montréal and Toronto FC have increasingly become more frequent trade partners in recent years, and that continued this week, as TFC sent midfielder Matty Longstaff to Montréal in exchange for forward Jules-Anthony Vilsaint and some GAM. 

NEWS | Toronto FC trade Midfielder Matty Longstaff to @cfmontreal in exchange for Jules-Anthony Vilsaint and up to $275,000 in General Allocation Money (GAM)

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— Toronto FC (@TorontoFC) August 13, 2025

At first glance, it’s a move that makes sense for both parties, as Toronto moved on from a midfielder that racked up just 906 minutes across 17 appearances in 2025 after earning over 2500 minutes across 40 appearances in 2024, while Montréal shed themselves of a forward who had played just over 1700 minutes across 45 appearances since joining the club in 2023, earning just 219 minutes in nine appearances in 2025. 

Given that Montréal needed an extra midfielder after the departure of Nathan Saliba, and that Toronto felt that they were light up front, that both teams were also able to address key positions of need makes this a classic win-win player swap on paper, too. 

When you dive deeper into the move, however, there are a few things that don’t quite add up, especially from Montréal’s perspective. 

In particular, the big thing that stands out is that Montréal attached $275,000 in GAM to Vilsaint to complete this trade, with $225,000 being guaranteed GAM and the rest conditional GAM. 

That’s a big surprise, as Toronto is acquiring the younger player in this deal, with Vilsaint sitting at 22 years of age, three years younger than Longstaff at 25. While Vilsaint comes attached with question marks, given that he scored just three goals and added five assists in his 45 Montréal appearances, some indicators suggest he could be better in a bigger role, and he’ll certainly get that with Toronto. 

Perfection from @cfmontreal. 🤌

Jules-Anthony Vilsaint finishes off the move to make it 2-0! pic.twitter.com/o8OfbrqKrP

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 12, 2024

With Longstaff bringing a bit more pedigree to the table as a former Premier League midfielder, though, one has to wonder if that explains the price discrepancy in this trade - it’s otherwise worth noting that both are on similar contracts, with each player set to see their deals expire at the end of 2025, with each holding a club option for 2026, so it’s not as if Montréal is paying extra to lock down Longstaff long-term (although the condition on the GAM appears to be contingent on whether or not he stays past this year). 

Therefore, when looking at each of the intangibles - Vilsaint’s age, Longstaff’s experience, the contracts and the positions (typically forwards are a bit more expensive than midfielders), all suggest that fair value could’ve been a one-for-one swap, instead of one with the added GAM. 

Matty Longstaff taps it home to give @TorontoFC the early lead!

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— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 18, 2024

Granted, the GAM is pretty insignificant in this deal, at least from Montréal’s perspective - for Toronto, it’s only a bigger deal as they’ve been stockpiling GAM, recently making a bunch of small trades to add to their coffers. Ultimately, the big piece for Montréal is Longstaff, as Vilsaint was essentially a bit part player in their 2025 team. 

For what it’s worth, there are signs that Longstaff could perhaps benefit from a change of scenery at his new club. His numbers have fallen off a bit in 2025 after putting up decent figures in 2024, where he was a solid ball progressor and final-action player for Toronto.

Here's Longstaff's stats from 2024 (in blue) and 2025 (in red). As seen here, he was a lot better on the ball last year, regressing heavy in that area in 2025, something Montréal will want to change (FBRef). 

To that point, one huge thing that stands out is that his closest statistical comparable from the 2024 season is none other than former Montréal midfielder Mathieu Choinière, whom Montréal never directly replaced when they sold him to Swiss club Grasshopper last year. 

With Choinière and Saliba now both gone from their midfield, Longstaff could prove to be a good replacement at that position, especially on the ball, should he find a way to replicate the form he showed last year. Plus, if there are any concerns with how he’ll adjust to a Montréal side that sits second-last in the MLS table as of writing, he put up his 2024 numbers on a TFC side that finished sixth-last last year, which is not an insignificant detail, as he won’t be daunted by the task that awaits him at his new club. 

When factoring that in, that further helps show why Montréal were willing to chuck an extra bit of GAM in for him, as they’ll feel they’re addressing a key position of need with a player that gives them some good experience at that spot.

Yet, when turning away from Longstaff to the player who moved out in Vilsaint, that’s where the bigger surprise is. For a Montréal team that recently publicly announced a rebuild, it’s a bit of a surprise to see them ship out a 22-year-old domestic player in exchange for a 25-year-old international. 

Granted, there are some concerns attached to Vilsaint, both in terms of his consistency and defensive application, which is why he hasn’t been able to stick in Montréal’s lineup. 

At the same time, there are also signs that he could thrive in a bigger role. For example, in 2024, he had some great underlying numbers in the 839 MLS minutes he played, sitting in the 83rd percentile among wingers and attacking midfielders in non-penalty xG (0.38 per 90 minutes), 83rd percentile in shots (2.9 per 90) and 81st percentile in non-penalty xG+xA per 90 (0.55 per 90). 

Here's Vilsaint's percentile chart from last year - as seen above, he generated a lot of non-penalty xG and shots, which is what you want out of an attacker (FBRef). 

That’s quite encouraging, as it meant that when he was on the pitch, he was firing the ball towards goal and turning his shot volume into dangerous opportunities, which is exactly what you want to see from young strikers. 

He wasn’t able to turn that into much final product, scoring just twice while adding three assists, as he underperformed his xG significantly, but his production had him among some pretty good peers, at least according to FBRef. There, when looking at some of his closest statistical comparables in MLS, three of the top four include San Jose’s Amahl Pellegrino (who had seven goals and two assists in MLS in 2024), Nashville’s Sam Surridge (12 goals and two assists) and Columbus’s Jacen Russell-Rowe (five goals and one assist), which is not a bad group of MLS forwards. 

Because of that, it doesn’t feel unreasonable to imagine what he could’ve done in a more elevated role with Montréal. If you were to take that 2024 output in terms of his non-penalty xG and non-penalty xA, and convert it across 1600 minutes of play (around 18 full 90s), he’d have had around 6.84 npxG and 3.06 xA, which is pretty darn good. 

Of course, the one thing that the hypothetical scenario doesn’t account for is if he was going to turn that expected output into actual goals, but assuming he just simply converted those numbers into output, with no under or overperformance, that he’d have gotten around 10 goal contributions is not bad from a 1600-minute sample size. 

Jules-Anthony Vilsaint comes into the game early and opens the scoring for Montreal!

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— Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 3, 2024

To put it simply, that’s around 10 goal contributions for a striker playing just over half of your minutes, which is output most managers would love to have from a player in such a role, especially from a 21-year-old forward (as he was at the time). 

He does have some things to iron out statistically, in other facets of his game, to be fair. For example, in terms of link-up play, he was in the 59th percentile in pass percentage (77.5% completed) and 7th percentile in passes attempted (22.39 per 90), and otherwise didn’t have the strongest ball progression numbers. Similarly, defensively, he didn’t have the greatest figures, either, although it’s worth noting that he’s decent in the air, which makes sense given his size - he was in the 62nd percentile in aerials won with 0.54 per 90. 

At the same time, he otherwise did exactly what you’d want to see from a forward, which is to get to the right areas of the pitch. It’s a lot harder to learn that than it is to work on your hold-up play, passing and defensive application, showing why it’s exciting to see what his output could’ve looked like across a bigger sample size.

Vilsaint's heatmap from 2024, showing that he loves to get to the box from that right side, which makes sense as he rarely played as an out-and-out striker. Because of that, it'll be interesting to see if Toronto deploys him in a similar role, or pushes him to become a true #9 given his size and desire to be involved around the box. (SofaScore). 

Therefore, if Toronto can find a way to get similar or better production from him while improving on some of the areas of his game where he’s struggled, this could be a shrewd gamble for them, one that saw them shed a player they didn’t need and earn some extra GAM in the process. Plus, that’s without even considering the environment that he’s joining, as he’ll drop into a system where he’ll get to link up with their new #10, Djordje Mihailovic, which will help make up for the fact that Toronto have had the worst attack in MLS in terms of shots and non-penalty xG per 90 in 2025 (and Vilsaint’s willingness to shoot can only help them with that). 

Yet, when looking at all of that, it answers the question of why Toronto were interested in such a move, and why they appear to be winners of this trade at first glance. Essentially, for a team that needs to shake up their frontline following the Mihailovic move, this is a fair gamble on a young player who could stand to benefit from earning a bigger role at a new club, as Toronto continues to reshape their team following the departure of Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi earlier this summer.

Fittingly, it’s actually the kind of move Montréal has typically been on the other end of in recent years, which is the last reason why this move feels so strange to see materialize. One of the big successes Montréal has had in the last half-decade has been what they’ve been able to do on the trade market within MLS, as they’ve taken a lot of swings on younger players around the league, especially in terms of targeting players in less-than-favourable situations. 

Mihailovic is arguably the perfect example of what that looks like, as long before he ended up at Toronto FC on a transfer from Colorado, Montréal acquired him from the Chicago Fire ahead of the 2021 season, and they got two very strong seasons out of him before selling him to Europe for good money.  

Otherwise, some other great trades Montréal have made over the last few years include acquiring Alistair Johnston from Nashville, Kamal Miller from Orlando (via Austin), George Campbell from Atlanta, Aaron Herrera from RSL, Caden Clark from Minnesota and Prince Owusu from Toronto, while recent moves to bring in Olger Escobar from New England and Jalen Neal from the LA Galaxy could end up working out similarly (and the verdict is still out on the trade for Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty from Toronto when seeing how he’s performed on loan with Charlotte). 

In most of those players' cases, they were able to thrive in a bigger role in Montréal, helping the team in the short term, while long-term, several moved on to bigger things and earned the club good money via sales in the process. 

On the flip side, when they’ve moved their players within MLS, they’ve usually been players in smaller roles like Erik Hurtado (who they moved to Columbus), older players like Kei Kamara (who they moved to Chicago), or players that just didn’t fit their system like Ruan (who they moved to Dallas), as they’ve done a good job of shedding players without regretting it. 

Because of that, they’ll hope that this Vilsaint move similarly doesn’t come back to bite them, as it can always be a big risk to make such trades with youngsters, especially when it’s done with a rival. Of course, there’s always the chance that this ends up being a win-win trade, and that all goes out the window, but it feels like the upside is in Toronto’s favour as of right now. 

Amid a busy week for Montréal off the field, as they parted ways with their Director of Soccer, Corey Wray, that further stands out in the wake of this move, especially when considering the context of where it fits (or doesn’t fit) in their ongoing rebuild. 

What this shows, however, is that this rebuilding process is going to take time. Ultimately, this Vilsaint for Longstaff move won’t be the be-all, end-all move that defines this new Montréal era, but it’ll carry extra scrutiny given the context of it all - something Montréal will have likely recognized. 

Therefore, keep a close eye on how Vilsaint and Longstaff settle with their new clubs, as the next few months could be telling in terms of what’s next for these two teams, with TFC seemingly slowly heading down a new path post-Italian era, and Montréal still searching for a clear direction as they try and recover from a few years of turmoil on and off the pitch. 

On paper, this move seems to do a pretty good job of embodying where each club is currently at off the field, as seen above, but it remains to be seen if this will play out that way on the pitch now, too.