It’s unclear when the news will come, and what the number will be, but it appears good news is on the horizon when it comes to Auston Matthews staying with the Toronto Maple Leafs beyond next season.
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It’s unclear when the news will come, and what the number will be, but it appears good news is on the horizon when it comes to Auston Matthews staying with the Toronto Maple Leafs beyond next season.
“I still am convinced that Auston Matthews is gonna sign in Toronto. I’ve been consistent about that, I still believe it,” Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said during the latest episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, released Friday.
Friedman explained that, from the viewpoint of Matthews’ camp, the elite 25-year-old centreman can expect to sign “two more big contracts in his future.”
“I think the Maple Leafs are gonna try to get a max-term deal out of this,” Friedman said. “I don’t know what the likelihood is, but I think they’re gonna try.”
Per Friedman, new Leafs GM Brad Treliving met with Matthews in Arizona last week. Unlike last summer’s dinner meeting with Jonathan Huberdeau, who signed an eight-year extension with the Flames three days after sitting down with the now-former Calgary GM,
Matthews has yet to sign such a deal in the wake of the Arizona visit. Friedman said both parties are “being really quiet” about negotiations in an effort to preserve the confidentiality of the process.
While Matthews is still under contract for another year, there is a sense of urgency given the long to-do list that landed on Treliving’s desk upon his hiring and swirling speculation about the longevity of the club’s Core Four.
Matthews is entering the final year of his five-year pact signed in February 2019, counting for $11.64 million against the cap. Not re-signing would start the clock ticking toward his pending unrestricted free agency July 1, 2024. Letting this process stretch out without a solid answer on term and cap hit would hinder Treliving & Co.’s ability to forge ahead with a clearer vision of the future during these crucial final weeks of June.
“I think that both sides understand here that this isn’t a decision that can wait a long time,” said Friedman. “The Maple Leafs, they’re doing their scouting meetings right now, they have to know kind of what this is going to look like so they can make a number of long-term decisions. The one thing that everybody here is well aware of, is that this is not something that can wait a long time. If nobody was sure that Matthews wanted to stay, I think we’d have a real problem here. But I think everybody, including Matthews’ people, recognizes that he wants to stay. So I think now becomes the question of, how quickly can this get done? And what are we looking at, so Toronto can do their other business.”