Rumor: Kypreos says Matthews will be 13.5M (Haggling over term)

[Tanknation]

He is such an unlikable player

3 year term at that AAV is disgusting.

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.

 

[summer tooth]

No way he signs for 3 years lol

 

[TheGroceryStick]

Leafs aside, Matthews is a sick hockey player when on and healthy and 100p worth being the 2nd highest paid player (once McDavid extends)

 

[WarriorofTime]

A three year term would be hilarious but I’d admire the guy for playing his cards well to really take full ownership of his career and do what he has to do to accomplish his goal of being the highest paid player in the world.

 

[horner]

Leafs aside, Matthews is a sick hockey player when on and healthy and 100p worth being the 2nd highest paid player (once McDavid extends)

Nylander and Marner we alot better than him last yr.
If Mathews has another average yr it won't be good on him

That's the big if
When healthy

A three year term would be hilarious but I’d admire the guy for playing his cards well to really take full ownership of his career and do what he has to do to accomplish his goal of being the highest paid player in the world.

He wiilll go to the HOF winning 1 rd in the playoffs if that is what he wants good for him

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

A three year term would be hilarious but I’d admire the guy for playing his cards well to really take full ownership of his career and do what he has to do to accomplish his goal of being the highest paid player in the world.

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

 

[horner]

Matthews will never win a cup in Toronto.

He will never let us build a team to win a cup.

 

[notbias]

Can't believe this guy gets paid like he's a top ten player.

Here is a list of people who have won a Hart in the last three years: McDavid, Matthews
Here is a list of people who have won a Lindsay in the last three years: McDavid, Matthews
Here is a list of people who have won a Rocket in the last three years: McDavid, Matthews
Here is a list of people who have won a Ross in the last three years: McDavid

 

[Leaf Fans]

A three year term would be hilarious but I’d admire the guy for playing his cards well to really take full ownership of his career and do what he has to do to accomplish his goal of being the highest paid player in the world.

It is a year too long in my opinion.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

That cap hit should be for 8 years. WTF.

Matthews has all the bargaining power here and little reason to do Toronto that big a favor. If he doesn't like the contract, he can refuse to sign anything and walk himself to free agency where he absolutely gets 14M+ on whatever term he wants.

 

[McShogun99]

Can't blame him for wanting to maximize his career earnings but it sucks for trying to build a winning team when no one is willing to take a slight discount.

 

[mkatcherin00]

He will earn over Gross 200M from his playing contracts alone. If he was a normal player and signs 12.5M x 8 this deal

~11M on 3 year ELC (ages 19 to 21)
58.17M on 5 year deal 2 (ages 22 to 26)
100M on 8 year deal (ages 27 to 34)

He is at 168.17M going into age 35 year at this pt

35-38 can make 30M and be rigjt at 200M earnings fron his NHL Contract alone

He does not give a f*** about winning at least with the leafs

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.

Sounds too wild to be true though.

He is juts showing right now that he is not 100% committed to Toronto. Like others, he could sign a gigantic 8 year deal. He has money to last generations. It's weird seeing a player fighting the GM to have LESS years. Usually guys want long deals for security and teams bring it down unless it's a big star.

My 5 year prediction was actually pretty stupid. It will be 3 or max. He has Toronto by the balls.

With all that being said, Matthews could love Toronto and love $$ too. Both can be right. It's his right if he wants 3 years and then he could stay in TO and just get more again. Doesn't help the team much unless the cap skyrockets.

Is he worth 13.5M? I don't think so. He is going to get it though 100%. His wrist has bothered him a lot too. Would people even want him for 8 years?

As some others said, when is enough enough? Every player is built different. Some care more about legacy and might take a discount. Some might just want the money and still love and enjoy the game, but don't care about a cup.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Same for everyone else who has a job. Would you take a pay cut so your boss can give the money to someone else? Sports fans are so unreasonable.

It isn’t the same though but nice false equivalency.

 

[mkatcherin00]

Keep dreaming, McDavid will be the highest paid player in the league when he signs his extension.


Nobody cared what players were making until the cap came in. I don't think any Avs fans cared when Sakic/Forsberg/Roy were making like 10 million each.

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

100% agree. You might as well compare him to what the Rock makes for a movie to baseline his salary.

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.

Always boggles my mind when people start talking about basketball salaries, etc. Makes no sense

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Can't blame him for wanting to maximize his career earnings but it sucks for trying to build a winning team when no one is willing to take a slight discount.

"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.

There have been better players than Matthews who don't do that sort of thing. Sure, they don't exactly sign for league minimum when they can make $15 million per year, but they do leave *something* on the table in order to allow their team a bit of wiggle room to sign better players. McDavid, for instance, probably could be pulling in $15+ million per year right now if he wanted to "maximize his career earnings".

So while obvious it's their prerogative to do what they want - they're the ones who worked their entire lives to get to this point - I do think it paints them in a negative light when you see other players who are as good or better than them not try to squeeze every last penny out of their club.

 

[mkatcherin00]

Wasn’t in a cap era…..hence it didn’t hinder the team….

fans didn’t care what players were paid pre cap. We care now because taking too much of the cap hinders team performance.

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.

 

[A1LeafNation]

Matthews has all the bargaining power here and little reason to do Toronto that big a favor. If he doesn't like the contract, he can refuse to sign anything and walk himself to free agency where he absolutely gets 14M+ on whatever term he wants.

So what. Mackinnon could have done the same thing too.

 

[WarriorofTime]

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.

Sounds too wild to be true though.

He is juts showing right now that he is not 100% committed to Toronto. Like others, he could sign a gigantic 8 year deal. He has money to last generations. It's weird seeing a player fighting the GM to have LESS years. Usually guys want long deals for security and teams bring it down unless it's a big star.

My 5 year prediction was actually pretty stupid. It will be 3 or max. He has Toronto by the balls.

With all that being said, Matthews could love Toronto and love $$ too. Both can be right. It's his right if he wants 3 years and then he could stay in TO and just get more again. Doesn't help the team much unless the cap skyrockets.

Is he worth 13.5M? I don't think so. He is going to get it though 100%. His wrist has bothered him a lot too. Would people even want him for 8 years?

As some others said, when is enough enough? Every player is built different. Some care more about legacy and might take a discount. Some might just want the money and still love and enjoy the game, but don't care about a cup.

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.

As for shorter term, again, Matthews is a smart guy. He probably looks at overall career trajectory of top players and believes himself to be one. He also probably looks at the NBA and how that generally works. For those unaware, nba cba has shorter contract lengths so players will sign contracts that are like 3+1 year option for a max contract. You can see players that are able to sign multiple max contracts each for progressively more value. For these players it works out really well because they keep making more and more with each new contract rather than if they had the option to sign for seven or eight years and lock themselves into lower max values. So Matthews probably figures as the salary cap goes up and the top player contract resets itself he can get back into it the free agency frenzy with Toronto if they’re still good or somewhere else if it comes to it and re-up for an even higher AAV as the salary cap likely continues to rise.

Of course he’s taking a risk because in three years time perhaps he isn’t as good and nobody wants to pay him a big dollar contract. But again he can look at the data with past players and believe in himself and take a calculated risk that he will make more in the subsequent five years than he would if he just signed for eight years. And so be it, that’s his right to contract accordingly.

 

[Boxscore]

It’s Kypreos so a huge grain of salt should be taken here

If true that’s a disgusting contract and shows what his priorities are

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.

 

[SjMilhouse]

Can't blame him for wanting to maximize his career earnings but it sucks for trying to build a winning team when no one is willing to take a slight discount.

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

Everyone always talks shit about players not taking a discount and how that means they don't want to win. Any discount is unlikely to go to getting good depth and instead just means core guys coming up for new contracts can fight for a little more (if they aren't willing to take a discount) so can you really blame a guy for maximizing his earnings when there is no guarantee anyone else does the same which is what it would take to truly benefit from the discount in the first place?

 

[JKG33]

A three year term would be hilarious but I’d admire the guy for playing his cards well to really take full ownership of his career and do what he has to do to accomplish his goal of being the highest paid player in the world.

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

 

[Hockeyholic]

It's too much. But it's also not his job to ensure the Leafs have cap space. That's on the president and GM.

Blame the front office if they are cap strapped. Also, the Leafs don't have to sign him if it's too much. Nobody is forcing them.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Same for everyone else who has a job. Would you take a pay cut so your boss can give the money to someone else? Sports fans are so unreasonable.

This isn't just taking a pay cut. This is manipulating contracts to absolutely maximize the money you can make.

Which quite frankly I can honestly say I would not do, no.

If I was working a job that I enjoyed a lot, with great coworkers, phenomenal work/life balamce, that paid me extremely well, and that company offered me an 8 year contract extension to continue in that same job moving forward...

Hell yeah I would take the contract.

 

[PromisedLand]

Given Matthews' injury history what if he gets a ridiculous injury and is done for then what? short term deal will come back to bite him on his ass

 

[Boxscore]

It's too much. But it's also not his job to ensure the Leafs have cap space.

It is if he prioritizes winning a Cup, which he obviously hasn't.