News Article: Auston Matthews - August 1st., Contract Crickets

[Gallagbi]

I’d like to see some numbers on this as it looks like they seem to.

Whats interesting is the majority of superstar 5-year RFA deals were followed up with an 8+ year UFA signing.

Crosby, Nash, Kovalchuk, Malkin, Toews, Kane, Stamkos. Most of which were considered team friendly. But im sure our savvy veteran GM will make that happen

 

[PromisedLand]

Or the other way around. Matthews agent knows the longer they wait, the more pressure on the Leafs.

Matthews has a NMC. Leafs options are to pay Matthews what he wants, or lose him for nothing.

I am so sick of these entitle brats. I'd do the unthinkable.

Pressbox them for the entire season. If you are gonna screw us we are gonna screw you back.

 

[PromisedLand]

Looking back on the whole thing I can’t believe they weren’t able to do something like “Auston, we love ya and you’re better than Eichel but not better than McDavid. Let’s give you the standard 8 years and split the difference between $12.5 million and $10 million. 8 years, $11.25 million.”

It wouldn’t have been a bargain for Toronto but the math and line of argumentation would have just been so clean and easy to follow. You’re better than one guy, not the other. Everyone gets a standard 8 years. Keep in mind, that number is not an insult by any means and would still be a state of the art contract today. He was cost controlled with no leverage either. How did Kyle screw up such a layup.

If ever there was an Anti-Legends Row Kyle Dubas would get a statue, shaking hands with JFJ.

Kyle Dubas is the biggest trash that has ever happened to the Leafs. Only ballard tops dubas for screwing over the leafs

 

[Racer88]

I am so sick of these entitle brats. I'd do the unthinkable.

Pressbox them for the entire season. If you are gonna screw us we are gonna screw you back.

I’m with you but I would put them on the 4th line for 7 minutes a night see how that helps on their next team

 

[PromisedLand]

I’m with you but I would put them on the 4th line for 7 minutes a night see how that helps on their next team

hell no man. give them no ice. make them sit in the pressbox. lets see what they get as UFAs with 0 games the previous season

 

[PromisedLand]

Nylander’s contract and negotiation is the same thing. He was the FIRST RFA to go the distance with his post ELC contract. Every other franchise that has a holdout usually has to wait at most a month before the two sides figure it out. Not the Leafs though, had to wait until the last minute before it was impossible for him to play that season before he signed. It just can’t be easy with these three. They’ll go to the mattresses against the franchise when it comes time to get more money but on the ice we’re lucky to see half that level of fight from them when things get a bit too rough for their liking.

All the God given talent in the world but they really know how to repulse the fan base with their tactics.

Really pisses me off!!!

Entitled brats. I wonder if Leafs fans will ever be so upset and pissed to give Leafs the bud light/Target treatment

 

[mapleleaf979]

Trade Matthews , he hasnt signed cuz 14 million is not on the table. I dislike Matthews now, he doesnt want a cup, he wants money.

 

[Nineteen67]

I am so sick of these entitle brats. I'd do the unthinkable.

Pressbox them for the entire season. If you are gonna screw us we are gonna screw you back.

If they say theyre walking I’d make them play the road games, especially in Canada, and no Saturday night games.

Play some of the odd ball weekday home games.

Willy can stay in Toronto when they go to Sweden.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

I am so sick of these entitle brats. I'd do the unthinkable.

Pressbox them for the entire season. If you are gonna screw us we are gonna screw you back.

Even I'm not that extreme. That would be cutting off our nose, ears, eyelids and nether regions to spite our face tbh. Like hunting a squirrel with the Tsar Bomba.

Trade Matthews , he hasnt signed cuz 14 million is not on the table. I dislike Matthews now, he doesnt want a cup, he wants money.

We can't realistically trade him right now.

They made their choice. The team has literally zero leverage whatsoever.

 

[notbias]

If we expanded the list to guys who've signed 7 year deals the list gets even bigger.

Brady Tkachuk
Panarin
Tavares
Gaudreau
Fox
Hamilton
Pietrangelo
Miller
Trouba
Hischier
Thompson

Fact of the matter is, in the NHL the vast majority of guys who are considered "franchise players" sign for 7-8 year deals. Not to mention that some of these 7 year deals are UFA contracts, which would lead us to believe that had it been an option these UFAs would've signed for 8 years if they could've.

Matthews is the lone wolf here. He's the one who considers himself to be above signing a long term deal despite not delivering anything in terms of team success. Hell I'd even take a 6 year deal from him, that would put him on the same length as Makar, Rantanen, Hughes, and Werenski. It's still not great and goes against the majority but it's a right sight better than 3 years.

You don't consider...

McDavid
Draisaitl
MacKinnon
Kucherov
Pastrnak
Tkachuk
Hughes
Barkov
Stutzle
Point
Zibanejad
Aho
Stamkos
Svechinkov
Eichel
Huberdeau
Dahlin
Hedman
etc.

... elite superstars? They all signed 8-year deals, you know that right?

If you are including contracts that take a player out of their prime, then yes, there is a larger list, someone like MacKinnon is getting paid til he is 35, which seems like a good deal for him.

Post-ELC, there are a lot more mid-term contracts than people think, some for 6, most of these are 5 years though.

A lot of names you both mentioned signed shorter contracts first.

Malkin
Toews
Statsny
Crosby
Bergeron
Aho
Larkin
Getzlaf
Tavares
Barkov
Zibanajed
Kovalchuk
Kane
Stamkos
Kessel
Benn
Rantanen
Duchene
Forsberg
Hedman
Pastrnak
Makar
Seguin
Gaudreau
Hughes
Konecny
Kaprizov
Jones
Vlasic
Hamilton
Werenski
Carlson
Letang
Burns
Rielly
Lindholm
Point

I can keep going.

If you were talking about 3rd contracts, my mistake, but I assumed second contracts, since long term 3rd contracts are normally more beneficial to the player not the team.

Letting a player like Hyman walk is the most clear example of how Dubas mismanage the rebuild, and the cap.

He was one of our worst playoff performers, it is crazy how selective people are with that.

Why would a Matthews get 12.5M+ when his production wSnt close to Mcdavid's?

69 in 82
63 in 62

Those were his first two years

Next year he was on pace for 100ish for near half the games into the year but fell off hard as he usually does.

Mcdavid got 12.5M after his ross+hart+lindsay year

Matthews had a calder and two years of being a non top 15 player in the league.

Eichel got 10M out of 75M or 13.33% after

113 pts in 142 games in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 year (rookie and sophmore years)

Next best player on his team 115 pts in 143 games (RoR)

Matthews got 11.634 out of 79.5M (signed in year)

178 pts in 182 games before his deal is signed ( rookie, sophmore, and third year half season)

Next best team mate

193 pts in 211 games (Marner up until Feb 4 2019 when Matthews signs)

Per 82 stats at time of signigs
Jack Eichel - 65 pts per 82
Auston Matthews 80 pts per 82
Mitch Marner 75 pts per 82
Mcdavid 96 pts per 82 at

What is a 15 pt gap worth?

Mcdavid is 16 ahead of Matthews while Eichel is 15 back of Matthews

Both signed for 8 year term. It seems that 11.-11.5M is the fair option between both deals on 8 year term. At 5 year term discount it down to 9.5M or so and its a fair deal for Matthews.

11.634M x 5 was 2M overpay

If you just say he is the middle of the two, then 12.25 million was his cap hit based on ch%.

He was closer to McDavid's level than Eichel's though.

 

[Nineteen67]

If you are including contracts that take a player out of their prime, then yes, there is a larger list, someone like MacKinnon is getting paid til he is 35, which seems like a good deal for him.

Post-ELC, there are a lot more mid-term contracts than people think, some for 6, most of these are 5 years though.

A lot of names you both mentioned signed shorter contracts first.

Malkin
Toews
Statsny
Crosby
Bergeron
Aho
Larkin
Getzlaf
Tavares
Barkov
Zibanajed
Kovalchuk
Kane
Stamkos
Kessel
Benn
Rantanen
Duchene
Forsberg
Hedman
Pastrnak
Makar
Seguin
Gaudreau
Hughes
Konecny
Kaprizov
Jones
Vlasic
Hamilton
Werenski
Carlson
Letang
Burns
Rielly
Lindholm
Point

I can keep going.

If you were talking about 3rd contracts, my mistake, but I assumed second contracts.



He was one of our worst playoff performers, it is crazy how selective people are with that.



If you just say he is the middle of the two, then 12.25 million was his cap hit based on ch%.

He was closer to McDavid's level than Eichel's though.

He played on one leg.

He’s exactly the player they are looking for but the apprentice did a terrible job by letting him get to FA.

What a disaster move hiring a kid to learn on the job.

 

[notbias]

He played on one leg.

He’s exactly the player they are looking for but the apprentice did a terrible job by letting him get to FA.

What a disaster move hiring a kid to learn on the job.

Did he play every year on one leg?

 

[Nineteen67]

View attachment 737867

Did he play every year on one leg?

he did pretty good early When he was healthy.

did very well the last two years.

exactly what they need. Relentless player with size and speed.

what a horrible GM

 

[notbias]

he did pretty good early When he was healthy.

did very well the last two years.

exactly what they need. Relentless player with size and speed.

what a horrible GM

Did horrible on the Leafs... what series was he not healthy for?

He put up 5 goals and 13 pts in 32 games.

He is a good player but even you are saying "when healthy", he has had a ton of knee issues and is signed long term, glad he is someone else's problem.

He plays the majority of the time with McDavid and is on PP1, ya he will put up points, but this is irrelevant to the fact he didn't do anything here.

 

[LeafEgo]

What a disaster move hiring a kid to learn on the job.

It seemed like such a good idea at the time . . .

 

[Squiffy]

And Toskala letting in a five hole goal.

 

[ACC1224]

he did pretty good early When he was healthy.

did very well the last two years.

exactly what they need. Relentless player with size and speed.

what a horrible GM

Looking solely at Hymans playoff numbers makes you wonder why the GM kept him around for the playoff runs?

What a disaster move hiring a kid to learn on the job.

This is really what it all comes down to.
It takes some serious insecurity to keep arguing otherwise.

 

[NMacrules]

hell no man. give them no ice. make them sit in the pressbox. lets see what they get as UFAs with 0 games the previous season

I agree but unfortunately the CBA prevents things like this happening.

 

[ACC1224]

I agree but unfortunately the CBA prevents things like this happening.

Common sense and even a minimal iq prevents it as well.

 

[Gilmour1996]

Trade Matthews , he hasnt signed cuz 14 million is not on the table. I dislike Matthews now, he doesnt want a cup, he wants money.

Not only that, he likes Justin Bieber.

 

[Nineteen67]

Looking solely at Hymans playoff numbers makes you wonder why the GM kept him around for the playoff runs?


This is really what it all comes down to.
It takes some serious insecurity to keep arguing otherwise.

There were post above. Having said that, he left out the past two years where he got over 10 points both years.

It would be nice to have a big, tenacious, fast,decent player that can play both ends of the rink, rather than looking for him.

 

[keglu]

There's a reason you stopped at 50 and used those specific time periods. Because the 11% difference between #1 in PPG between their respective pre-signing periods drops to 9% to 7% to 4$ to 2%, etc. as you keep going down the ladder. But again, you're focused on the wrong part of the post in the first place. Actually, you focused in on the least relevant parts of both of my posts to you.

That was my point. League wide scoring only increased by around 10% in that period. But it was heavily skewed towards top players with probably around 25% increase.
So even league scoring adjusted stats would not show whole truth.


And regarding /60 stats,during Matthews ELC there was 8 Leafs better at 5v5 /60 than anyone on Sabres during Eichel first 2 years. This inludes studs like JVR, Bozak, Kapanen, Hyman. So maybe you are the one missing context and comparing /60 stats between bottom feeder and Playoff team is not such great idea.
Plus Eichel is 1,6 P/60 in first 2 seasons vs 2.1P /60 in Matthews ELC period so it seems like overall scoring heavily influences these stats also.

 

[Nineteen67]

Did horrible on the Leafs... what series was he not healthy for?

He put up 5 goals and 13 pts in 32 games.

He is a good player but even you are saying "when healthy", he has had a ton of knee issues and is signed long term, glad he is someone else's problem.

He plays the majority of the time with McDavid and is on PP1, ya he will put up points, but this is irrelevant to the fact he didn't do anything here.

Ahhh? What series? Are you sure you know who we’re talking about?

Yes he gets more points with McDavid than Matthews and Marner. Is that another reason why Matthews shouldn’t be getting McDavid level pay?

https://x.com/leafspr/status/1121417008174600192?s=61&t=As8W2lrX2YqQ5tNXuCo4Wg

 

[notbias]

There were post above. Having said that, he left out the past two years where he got over 10 points both years.

It would be nice to have a big, tenacious, fast,decent player that can play both ends of the rink, rather than looking for him.

Because he didn't play for us the last two years...... he needs someone like McDavid to drive his point total...

Why is this a hard concept? In Toronto he was bad.

Ahhh? What series? Are you sure you know who we’re talking about?

Yes he gets more points with McDavid than Matthews and Marner. Is that another reason why Matthews shouldn’t be getting McDavid level pay?

https://x.com/leafspr/status/1121417008174600192?s=61&t=As8W2lrX2YqQ5tNXuCo4Wg

Because Hyman can put up more points in a weak West beside McDavid and the best PP is why Matthews shouldn't get McDavid level pay? Makes sense.

Matthews will get MacKinnon level pay which is what he is worth, too bad no one understands how the cap works and it will be more money than MacKinnon and people will freak out.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Because he didn't play for us the last two years...... he needs someone like McDavid to drive his point total...

Why is this a hard concept? In Toronto he was bad.

Because Hyman can put up more points in a weak West beside McDavid and the best PP is why Matthews shouldn't get McDavid level pay? Makes sense.

Matthews will get MacKinnon level pay which is what he is worth, too bad no one understands how the cap works and it will be more money than MacKinnon and people will freak out.

If playing with McDavid is that much better than playing with M&M, what the heck are we paying M&M all that money for?

That's the problem with this team in a nutshell - M&M can't produce when the stakes are the highest, somehow they get "outgoalied" year after year. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.