Playing his cards right though with the Laff's. Then you have every other big name on that team haggling and doing the same. He set a bad precedence for the organization and his teammates. Clearly the big 3 are about the money and not a cup.
Nylander and Marner we alot better than him last yr.
He wiilll go to the HOF winning 1 rd in the playoffs if that is what he wants good for him
ya i know he will take ALOT of heat for what hes doing, but his agent is REALLY taking care of him and coming up with great ideas to maximize AMs earnings(and his) from the way they do contracts
I heard lots of talk on Leafs radio the past few weeks where some say being the #1 earner all time is actually something he looks at. Like a goal.
It isn’t the same though but nice false equivalency.
I think the league should have a hard luxury tax if it came to it. Never see it happening. Every dollar you go over, you pay 4x on top
Exactly. That is what it always sounds like. You cannot look at other sports. The damn NFL owners pay their entire payroll off + more with just the TV contract before the first game of the season. The Rock is making 50M in his next movie because he is in an industry that generates a sh** ton of revenue. That 50M is nothing for a big profitable film.
"Blame" might be the wrong word, but I think there's room to criticize a player who seems to only care about making as much as possible without much regard for whether that handicaps his team from building a winner around him.
Have to correct you there. Rich teams fans didn't care lol. Others did. Most teams had an internal cap. Edmonton, for example, was like tops 32sh I think. A team like Vancouver was like 40-45M. They lost Dough Weight to ST, who gave him like double what EDM offered. Joseph to Toronto. Guerin got maxed out. On and on it went.
Being the number 1 earner of all time probably isn’t some specifically in mind goal but maximizing total career earnings very well might be. And that’s hardly different than any other person, debate aside about when is enough enough and greed etc. look at soccer players taking on hundreds of millions from the Saudis and selling out the opportunity to play in the biggest clubs for the most coveted trophies and such. NHL players have always made a fraction of what other top athletes make. And let’s face it, that’s who those guys view as their “peers” not folks like you and me. So a guy like Matthews wants to maximize his earning potential in the 20 years or so he can be a pro hockey player. So be it. That’s his right.
Mike Johnson was on a few weeks ago and said he expects Matthews to get 14 mil or north of it on a 4 year deal and that he owes the Leafs nothing. Ex-players are going to ex-player.
Why would anyone on that team take a discount when no one else is? They signed Tavares, which made no sense then and still makes no sense now, to an $11m contract. Matthews has outperformed him every year of that contract by a decent margin. What's a discount for someone like Matthews even come in at? $11.5? $12? He'd be dumb to take less than $11m
I would never wish injury on a player as that's against forum rules, but Matthews is taking a big risk going short term on these contracts hoping for another big payday when the cap goes up. Especially when he's had a few injuries already. I certainly wouldn't shed a tear if his strategy backfired
