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

[justashadowof]

Some of the takes in here are awful. If you trade a #1C of Matthews’ calibre, we could be waiting many years for a player at his level again. Players like this are extremely rare. He’s the franchise player that we build around.

Decades even. But if you let him end up going for nothing or crippling the team's salary structure, those are also lost opportunities. It's about franchise priorities: does having your superstar be a long term Toronto Maple Leaf at any cost trump a championship. The next Canadian NHL franchise to win a Stanley Cup isn't going to do it the same way U.S. franchises do it. It's 30 years and counting for all Canadian NHL franchises.

 

[81Leafs50]

You talk about facts and then say the bolded which you know nothing about. Attitude problem is an opinion

FACT. Matthews says he wants to be a Maple Leaf.
FACT. Matthews said he wants to be a Maple without knowing Dubas was going to resign and no Shane Doan in Toronto.
FACT. Matthews has been a model citizen in Toronto.

 

[thewave]

this thread is embarrassing to the fanbase.

Auston Matthews is a Maple Leaf.
Auston Matthews wants to stay a Maple Leaf.
Auston Matthews does not have an attitude problem.
Auston Matthews doesn't need Dubas, Shane Doan, or anyone else to convince him to stay.
Auston Matthews does not play for any one person, he plays for the Maple Leafs.
Auston Matthews has 2 Rockets, a Hart, and a Ted Lindsay.

STOP speculating on things you have zero information on. Stay on topic. Recite facts, current events, or history.

STOP making things up about Matthews. He is the Leafs best player and he wants to play no where else.

You are telling everyone to stop speculating by speculating. Its an easy fix, put it in writing and commit officially now effective the 1st.

 

[81Leafs50]

Matthews ranks 19th goals per 60 in active players and 42 in pts/60. Why after failing for 7 years and not even being ppg or .5gpg in the playoffs it's excusable for him to be the highest paid player in the NHL is beyond me.


I think 6 first round losses/1 2nd round curb stomping and a loss to a middle aged zamboni driver is 100000000000000000x more embarrassing than anything in this thread.

Tavares said the same thing before he left the Islanders btw, when has a player come out and said "yeah i'm leaving this dump, just gonna play out my contract," they all "want to stay" until they're gone.

check the quotes. Tavares never said what Matthews said. stop making things up.

 

[thewave]

FACT. Matthews says he wants to be a Maple Leaf.
FACT. Matthews said he wants to be a Maple without knowing Dubas was going to resign and no Shane Doan in Toronto.
FACT. Matthews has been a model citizen in Toronto.

Here we go again.

Fact people lie.
Fact model citizen or not does not equal wants to remain one.

 

[81Leafs50]

You are telling everyone to stop speculating by speculating. Its an easy fix, put it in writing and commit officially now effective the 1st.

If Matthews signed something now, Leafs would get penalized for breaking the rules. Matthews will sign. who cares when it happens.

 

[geo25]

Don't even worry about the crest. This teams crest is a dollar bill. It's not possible to win anymore with the cap and the fact that MLSE is more interested in selling names. It's all about merch and ad revenue for the media division. I wouldn't be surprised if they even invested in companies like Bet99.

The team legit needs a fan exodus to restructure properly. We'll see what Treliving can do or read about what the board made him do in his future book.,

Well said..totally agree...

 

[andora]

FACT. Matthews says he wants to be a Maple Leaf.
FACT. Matthews said he wants to be a Maple without knowing Dubas was going to resign and no Shane Doan in Toronto.
FACT. Matthews has been a model citizen in Toronto.

2nd fact you mention - when did he actually say he wants to be a maple leaf?

He didnt say that as far as i recall..he used words like intention.. which facilitates a whole bunch of sub context and lumps the business side into it

 

[thewave]

If Matthews signed something now, Leafs would get penalized for breaking the rules. Matthews will sign. who cares when it happens.

That's speculation. If he doesn't will you personally compensate everyone that buys merch between now and then based on your word?

 

[geo25]

I was kind of thinking the same thing. Lol
Almost nothing was facts


Here is somethin. Neither of the 2 teams playing for the cup have a Matthews caliber player yet here we are…….onevof them is going to win the cup.
Begs the question, how necessary is a Matthews type player?

Good observation...that allows for a more balanced team.

FACT. Matthews says he wants to be a Maple Leaf.
FACT. Matthews said he wants to be a Maple without knowing Dubas was going to resign and no Shane Doan in Toronto.
FACT. Matthews has been a model citizen in Toronto.

FACT: he can leave TO despite saying all that and we get ZERO for him....just like JT stiffed the NYI

 

[Trapper]

I don't disagree with this but then we go down the list, if you think Matthews on Vegas works as a cup winner as a 1C...

Coach? Defense? Supporting cast? Wingers?

Keeping in mind that Eichel has actually crushed it in his first playoffs and makes 1.3 or so less than Matthews and will for an additional few years probably make 2-3M less once Matthews re-ups.

Matthews needs to be re-educated IMO.
Get away from the constant returning core.
Matthews/Rielly/Woll, rebuild the D bigger and mobile, plus different forwards.

Eichel leaving Buffalo surrounded by men did wonders.

 

[justashadowof]

check the quotes. Tavares never said what Matthews said. stop making things up.

Article from January 2018, quote:

Asked what his priority is in making a decision, Tavares said: “I want to stay on Long Island… I haven’t thought about being anywhere except with the Islanders.” #Isles
— Arthur Staple (@StapeNewsday) January 15, 2018

 

[WTFMAN99]

Matthews needs to be re-educated IMO.
Get away from the constant returning core.
Matthews/Rielly/Woll, rebuild the D bigger and mobile, plus different forwards.

Eichel leaving Buffalo surrounded by men did wonders.

I have a huge appreciation for what Vegas has done.

The first time around, I said to hell with them winning the cup, it's their 1st season. Since then, they've been super aggressive in trying to improve. Adding Eichel and Pietrangelo and not being too loyal to players if they think they can get better.

While still having main stay types with March, Smith, Karlsson, Roy, Carrier etc...

It's made me really believe that we need to make bigger changes and be less nice with our players. JT in particular.

 

[Trapper]

I have a huge appreciation for what Vegas has done.

The first time around, I said to hell with them winning the cup, it's their 1st season. Since then, they've been super aggressive in trying to improve. Adding Eichel and Pietrangelo and not being too loyal to players if they think they can get better.

While still having main stay types with March, Smith, Karlsson, Roy, Carrier etc...

It's made me really believe that we need to make bigger changes and be less nice with our players. JT in particular.

If JT doesn’t waive, he would play out his 2 years and I would jet him go.
I’m sure he’s a fine human being but he just doesn’t seem to have a pulse (IMO). Not what I’m looking for.
I’m the meantime, in those 2 years, I’m preparing the team around Matthews/Rielly/Knies/Woll as I indicated.
The little boys club out.

 

[KMNRB]

I think he will stay if Toronto meets his contract demand. The question is, will he ask for an outrageous percentage of the cap.

I hope though, that seeing Eichel winning the Stanley Cup will influence Matthews' desire to be paid less than premium (i.e., aligning with the other superstars of the league).

Another factor is, with the interest and inflation rate so high much higher now than five years ago, a heavily front-loaded contract should worth a bit more (based on present-value calculation) than four or five years ago.

 

[hockeywiz542]

Auston Matthews holds all of the power in contract talks with the Maple Leafs

Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving can't let contract negotiations with Auston Matthews become Johnny Gaudreau 2.0.

theathletic.com

One year later, Treliving, now the Maple Leafs GM, is facing a situation with Auston Matthews that isn’t totally dissimilar from the one he once faced with Gaudreau.

Matthews can sign an extension with the Leafs on July 1. That same day, the no-movement clause in his current contract also kicks in. In other words, by Canada Day, Matthews will hold full control over his future — and all the leverage in contract talks.

It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison between Gaudreau and Matthews, even if Matthews is coming off a “down” year of 40 goals and 85 points in 74 games followed by five goals and 11 points in 11 playoff games. Matthews is in a different stratosphere as a player than Gaudreau is or ever was.

At his best, Matthews is a top-three player in the world — top-one even the season before last.

Which makes this negotiation even thornier for Treliving.

How do you even negotiate with someone who holds all the power?

If this were the NBA, the Leafs would simply extend the biggest contract possible to Matthews. But this isn’t the NBA. It’s the NHL with a hard cap — and a player who is arguably more important to this franchise than any who came before him.

The Leafs really are at Matthews’ mercy. All they can do is urge him to stay for longer and for less.

They, of course, struggled to do that last time around (with Dubas as GM) when Matthews signed only a five-year contract with what was then the second-highest cap hit in the league ($11.64 million cap hit). The threat of an offer sheet loomed then. Now, it’s the threat of Matthews just leaving next summer.

It’s even more leverage, in other words, for Matthews.

Do the Leafs have any choice but to cede to his demands? What’s even reasonable?

Nathan MacKinnon will hold the highest cap hit in the league when his new contract begins next season. That $12.6 million cap hit was worth just over 15 percent of the cap at the time it was signed last fall. Connor McDavid, the former holder of the top spot, nabbed almost 17 percent of the cap when he signed his second NHL deal back in 2017.

It’s almost certain that Matthews’ ends up somewhere in that range.

His last deal came with a cap hit that was worth 14.64 percent of the cap at the time it was signed in Feb. 2019.

So the Leafs are probably looking at a deal with a cap hit in the range of 15 to 17 percent of the cap, vaulting him beyond MacKinnon and McDavid.

 

[therealkoho]

I'll finish the sentence seeing as Matthews was a little shy and didn't!

Auston Matthews doesn't plan on leaving the Toronto Maple Leafs, unless of course they aren't going to cede to his contract demands to make him the highest paid player in the NHL on a short term deal in order to take advantage of any increases in the Cap ceiling going forward.​

So that's the part our regular season warrior wouldn't say, He cares solely about the Matthews bank account and as far as "loving" Toronto you can love any city if the money's right, hell even Calgary!

 

[myleafs]

Bringing Doan into the fold as a method to keep Matthews around shows just how out of touch and doubled down on mediocrity this management/ownership group is. Dark times ahead.

Whether its for Matthews or not I like Doan and would welcome into the fold but I hear what your saying.

I totally agree .if they truly like playing Here we ll find out soon enuff
I think it's mostly knowing that they really love the money here
I mean Caulfield just gave Montreal a bargain like him or not he's a solid 40 /40 guy


If mathews is hell bent to be the highest paid well I think it should be trelivings job to tell all the core 3 "if we sign u all to big raises we have to buy out JOHNNY T"
screw it tell it like it is

Not to be technical but JT cant be bought our for any cap savings.

 

[myleafs]

this thread is embarrassing to the fanbase.

Auston Matthews is a Maple Leaf.
Auston Matthews wants to stay a Maple Leaf.
Auston Matthews does not have an attitude problem.
Auston Matthews doesn't need Dubas, Shane Doan, or anyone else to convince him to stay.
Auston Matthews does not play for any one person, he plays for the Maple Leafs.
Auston Matthews has 2 Rockets, a Hart, and a Ted Lindsay.

STOP speculating on things you have zero information on. Stay on topic. Recite facts, current events, or history.

STOP making things up about Matthews. He is the Leafs best player and he wants to play no where else.

We will find out soon enough

If its’s me running things - there are 3 options I would look at.

1. Sign Matthews and Nylander/Marner all to team friendly deals. This would be almost impossible to pull off.

2. Sign Matthews at his price, but this means trading away Marner/Nylander. This locks the Franchise Centre and allows you to rebuild your salary structure.

3. Trade them all for young prospects and do a mini rebuild.

Personally, I like option 3.

Not that i neccessarily disagree with your points but the bolded would be a full rebuild not a mini one.

 

[myleafs]

If you replace Eichel with Matthews in Vegas, are they where they are today ?? You bet they are. Pretty easy to determine the reason why it is not working here.

I would take it a step further...what if we had Stone and Marchessault + 4 mill cap instead of Marner, Nylander

 

[LeafGrief]

If Matthews wants to be the highest paid player in the league, I see no reason why we even want him on a long term deal. If he was still 23 and didn't have wrist problems, then yeah I'd be all about the 8 year deal. But if he wants 14m, eight years is terrifying. The paradigm of max term on deals only really makes sense when we're talking about first contracts. Look at JT, big term on second deals have their own set of risks associated with them.

 

[Captain Crunch]

Decades even. But if you let him end up going for nothing or crippling the team's salary structure, those are also lost opportunities. It's about franchise priorities: does having your superstar be a long term Toronto Maple Leaf at any cost trump a championship. The next Canadian NHL franchise to win a Stanley Cup isn't going to do it the same way U.S. franchises do it. It's 30 years and counting for all Canadian NHL franchises.

Exactly! And if Matthews is truly in it for the team and winning, he should do what MacKinnon did, be the highest paid player, but only by $100,000 more (and let's not forget, MacKinnon did that AFTER he won the Cup)!!!

 

[myleafs]

If Matthews wants to be the highest paid player in the league, I see no reason why we even want him on a long term deal. If he was still 23 and didn't have wrist problems, then yeah I'd be all about the 8 year deal. But if he wants 14m, eight years is terrifying. The paradigm of max term on deals only really makes sense when we're talking about first contracts. Look at JT, big term on second deals have their own set of risks associated with them.

Im not sure who said it but it was along the lines of players second 8 yrs in the league are statistically worse than their first 8 years.

 

[Clark4Ever]

If Matthews is hell bent on getting the maximum percentage of the cap allowable under the CBA, I would honestly look at moving him for the maximum return. He is not worth anywhere close to that, and it would influence the Nylander and Marner contract negotiations in a very negative way.

If he wants to be the highest paid player in the NHL (even though it is not deserved), offer him 12.8 million on a short-medium term contract and hold firm.

Enough of this BS of our home grown players trying to rape the organization in contract negotiations.

 

[hockeywiz542]

Dreger on why Matthews holds all leverage in extension talks, Barbashev’s incoming payday and more - TSN.ca

TSN hockey insider Darren Dreger joins Leafs Lunch to discuss the Vegas Golden Knights jumping out to a 2-0 series lead in the Stanley Cup Final, how Ivan Barbashev has set himself up for a big payday this after a strong playoffs, why Auston Matthews holds all of the leverage in extension talks with the Leafs and more.