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

[ottawa]

This sounds a bit stupid to me considering debilitating injuries can happen at any moment.

I see very low upside in choosing 40M with potential to sign later for say 112M, rather than simply signing for 108M right now with potential to sign later for say 20M.

I see you've done the math and didn't just throw out random numbers. Completely agree with you.

And at the end of the day wtf is the difference between 152m (40+112) and 128m+ (108 now + a 20m contract but likely more at age 35) on top of all the money he's already earned.

I mean sure 25m is a f*** ton of money but when you're that rich is it really life changing? I guess us poor folks will never understand.

 

[Strangle]

Nhl league revenue is at 5 billion. Where is it going? Anyways the cap should be going up and whatever the reason it hasnt is all bullshit. Like i said years behind. Also AM still doing the rigt thing 13.5 is what a player of his calibre should be asking for.

$2.5b of it is spent on player salaries.

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

This is just not a relevant comparison. I am a huge Brayden Point fan, but from a contractual standpoint, they are not in the same class. Matthews is the best goal scorer in the NHL since he entered the league, has hit 60+ and won a Hart. That's a different class than Brayden Point and is going to get paid substantially more. Point also signed his contract a few years ago, so you have to bake in cap inflation and future cap growth to new contract AAVs.

Also if I was Matthews, no, I would not trust the team anyway. Treliving just made one of the most hilariously immediately bad trades of the decade. And again, if they're haggling him over $500k-1M yet went and decided to throw more than that amount in the garbage by signing Reaves anyway....yeah I would be less willing to take a discount too.

Brayden Point is a legit #1C league wide on a team that has won the Cup, and his play-off stats are better than Austin Matthews. Has BP won the individual awards? No he has not, but that's more about PR than actual helping your team win IMO. And I don't think that you bake inflation in when BP is signed through like 2030 and AM is likely to sign through 2026.

If you'd rather use Eichel as a comparison - please feel free to do so.

My point is that if the Leaf's are playing the Bolts they need to get a ton more production from AM than BP to make up for the fact that the Lightning likely have 2 legit NHL players (or another Palat/Killorn level player) on their roster than the Leafs, who have roster filler to make up for the salary difference.

 

[DuklaNation]

He's not worth it. Has had maybe 2 excellent seasons, the others are standard 80 pt range seasons.

 

[bossram]

Brayden Point is a legit #1C league wide on a team that has won the Cup, and his play-off stats are better than Austin Matthews. Has BP won the individual awards? No he has not, but that's more about PR than actual helping your team win IMO. And I don't think that you bake inflation in when BP is signed through like 2030 and AM is likely to sign through 2026.

If you'd rather use Eichel as a comparison - please feel free to do so.

My point is that if the Leaf's are playing the Bolts they need to get a ton more production from AM than BP to make up for the fact that the Lightning likely have 2 legit NHL players (or another Palat/Killorn level player) on their roster than the Leafs, who have roster filler to make up for the salary difference.

Again, Eichel is not a relevant comparison. It's even worse actually, he signed his deal in his second season with many RFA years remaining. It's not at all comparable.

NHL contracts are primarily determined by goals and points. Matthews has been an elite producer since he entered the league and will be paid as such. Treliving would be laughed out of negotiations if he brought up guys who aren't even close to his production, or didn't sign primarily UFA deals, as comparables.

The Leafs can make up the cap savings by not signing horribly inefficient deals to bad players.

 

[Strangle]

Players wanting to be paid for games not played during Covid, causing the players to owe a billion dollars. No fans allowed at games.
Read the MOU, it will help you understand better, year by year, how they pay back the billion. Time to start licking.

A lot of fans don’t understand escrow or the players getting paid while the league made much less money, making the NHLPA CBA rules broken and had to make the agreement whole again.

Players are getting a better deal in the NHL than anywhere else, I’m pretty sure. I think the players percentage of revenue is higher than other sports?

It doesn’t really matter, it’s not a big difference. But teams have a lot of other expenses to pay for while operating an NHL team, player salaries are simply the highest (as they should be).

I think people see an NHL owner just pocketing $2.5b a year and laughing at all of us who buy tickets, and the players for being slaves to only be making 50% of the entire leagues revenue

The cap won’t go up until the players portion of revenue gets back to 50%, because it’s out of balance according to the CBA right now, due to league revenue shortfalls during covid. During covid, the players made a much much higher percentage of revenue than 50%.

They need to make the owners while before they can spend more on player salaries, or it’s probably a criminal case against the league for breaking the CBA

The collective bargaining process - Canada.ca

www.canada.ca

 

[nhlfan9191]

The Leafs former management completely dropped the ball giving Matthews and Marner UFA money when they should’ve been controlled assets. Giving Matthews that much money when they have nothing to show as far as team accomplishments has to be frustrating. The guy goes on cruise control in the playoffs.

 

[Strangle]

The Leafs former management completely dropped the ball giving Matthews and Marner UFA money when they should’ve been controlled assets. Giving Matthews that much money when they have nothing to show as far as team accomplishments has to be frustrating. The guy goes on cruise control in the playoffs.

The idea was to win before the team got to this point. The players underperformed in the playoffs.

This is why, as a fan, I understand that moving on from some of these players may be the right thing to do in order to reset the window

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

Again, Eichel is not a relevant comparison. It's even worse actually, he signed his deal in his second season with many RFA years remaining. It's not at all comparable.

NHL contracts are primarily determined by goals and points. Matthews has been an elite producer since he entered the league and will be paid as such. Treliving would be laughed out of negotiations if he brought up guys who aren't even close to his production, or didn't sign primarily UFA deals, as comparables.

The Leafs can make up the cap savings by not signing horribly inefficient deals to bad players.

I think we're talking apples and oranges. I'm talking about the Leaf's challenges paying AM 30-40% more than other legit #1C's who outproduce AM come the play-offs. And the centers I'm comparing AM to will be under contract through the rumored contract term.

 

[nhlfan9191]

The idea was to win before the team got to this point. The players underperformed in the playoffs.

This is why, as a fan, I understand that moving on from some of these players may be the right thing to do in order to reset the window

I don’t understand how the point was to win before when they were already in cap hell before these extensions were due. Having $40 million tied up in 4 players was flawed to begin with and it’s only getting worse regardless if the cap rises.

 

[OILSLICK94]

If it's a short term deal (3 years), that AAV has come in at less than $13.5m. That's a big L for the Leafs if true. That thing better be a max or near max term deal at that AAV.

THIS!!! 1000 TIMES THIS....... if its a 3 year deal, then the Leafs just bent over again in negotiations and Dubas is no where in site this time..... leads me to believe Shannaplan was behind it all to begin with.

 

[bossram]

I think we're talking apples and oranges. I'm talking about the Leaf's challenges paying AM 30-40% more than other legit #1C's who outproduce AM come the play-offs. And the centers I'm comparing AM to will be under contract through the rumored contract term.

Yes. They are two separate arguments.

1. Contract terms: I'm talking about a fair contract settlement for Matthews. Regarding the bolded, you've also tried to speak to that, but have not provided any actually relevant contract comparables.

2. Team competitiveness. I think the Leafs can be a contender even while paying Matthews a premium, by becoming more efficient at the bottom of the roster. You do not. With Treliving signings like Reaves and Klingberg, I don't think either of us will be right on this.

 

[Sideline]

Aho at under 10 for 8 years makes this look like a terrible deal for the Leafs.

You still need to pay it because where else are you getting a franchise #1 centre, but Matthews is taking everything from them here.

 

[BLONG7]

He's not worth it. Has had maybe 2 excellent seasons, the others are standard 80 pt range seasons.

And his agent says 13.5M and the GM of the leafs is actually going to cave?

How can anyone think they should get more money that McDavid or Big Mac?
Kucherov is worth more than AM.....

 

[Forgetful]

Hope he takes them to the cleaners, chase the green Austin, don't leave a single penny on the table

 

[mclaren55]

Hope he takes them to the cleaners, chase the green Austin, don't leave a single penny on the table

I'd hope that too if I cheered for the Sens.

 

[Sniper99]

Every team in the league would offer Matthews 13.5M if they could. Some even more.

they would be called suckers.

 

[SensontheRush]

In reflection, his points totals are pretty meh to be paid top dollar in the league. Always thought he had been putting up higher point totals.

I guess this is what happens when you are in the spotlight media market. No other media market in the league influences the perception of their players like Toronto does.

 

[Face Of Bear]

they would be called suckers.

Future cup champions*

 

[ViewsFromThe6ix]

He's not worth it. Has had maybe 2 excellent seasons, the others are standard 80 pt range seasons.

Nice job ignoring the elite defensive play. Nobody combines elite finishing, chance generation, and 2 way play like Matthews. He’s a unicorn.

 

[57special]

Toronto bends over again.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Every team in the league would offer Matthews 13.5M if they could. Some even more.

Some would, but would have an 8 year term attached to it.

 

[Strangle]

I don’t understand how the point was to win before when they were already in cap hell before these extensions were due. Having $40 million tied up in 4 players was flawed to begin with and it’s only getting worse regardless if the cap rises.

No, you misunderstood or I wasn’t clear enough. The plan was to win on the ELC’s. The time the first extensions came up, we had already effectively run out of time.

When Tavares came in, that’s when they knew they had to win quickly

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

Yes. They are two separate arguments.

1. Contract terms: I'm talking about a fair contract settlement for Matthews. Regarding the bolded, you've also tried to speak to that, but have not provided any actually relevant contract comparables.

2. Team competitiveness. I think the Leafs can be a contender even while paying Matthews a premium, by becoming more efficient at the bottom of the roster. You do not. With Treliving signings like Reaves and Klingberg, I don't think either of us will be right on this.

Agree that it's possible for the Leafs to be competitive while paying Matthews $13.5M. IMO, possible is a REALLY low bar to set.

The problem is that paying AM that enables MM to also get paid signficantly more than other 1st line wingers from contenders, which forces Treliving to go dumpster diving for players to fill out the roster. When I think of TB's play-off success, I think of the 3rd line and guys like Palat who really delivered. The Leafs aren't able to afford those guys because of the core, so the core has to consistently be the difference makers, and that hasn't happened yet.

 

[nhlfan9191]

No, you misunderstood or I wasn’t clear enough. The plan was to win on the ELC’s. The time the first extensions came up, we had already effectively run out of time.

When Tavares came in, that’s when they knew they had to win quickly

The time to win was when they could pay for RFA years, not just ELC contracts. Toronto allowed themselves to get bent over by Matthews and Marner. Not only did they pay them UFA money, they gave them every bit of leverage they could have. Matthews career high was 73 points and they made him the second highest paid player in the league buying no UFA years in return. Just awful negotiating.