Confirmed with Link: Leafs sign F Auston Matthews to extension (4 years, $13.25M AAV)

[francis246]

People will say the players that signed for less are either stupid...or they just don't know how valuable they are. The media is acting like Auston did us a favor by saying he could have gotten 15M if he was a UFA...which may be true..but is it a good team with great players paying him that much? Doubt it.

I would be in the camp of thinking taking less is very stupid on an athletes part. You get one life, you get one career and that can be taken from you at any moment. Maximize your career earnings as much as possible. Fans and organizations will turn on you instantly. But again I think the star players should support each other by all taking their true value. I do think in the next CBA contract length will be shortened again to 5 or 6 years.

It just sucks how much salary plays a factor into fan perspective in the NHL. A lot of good players take a lot of heat for no reason other than the money the money they make. You don’t see that in other sports. Salary is pretty much irrelevant.

 

[Gabriel426]

I would be in the camp of thinking taking less is very stupid on an athletes part. You get one life, you get one career and that can be taken from you at any moment. Maximize your career earnings as much as possible. Fans and organizations will turn on you instantly. But again I think the star players should support each other by all taking their true value. I do think in the next CBA contract length will be shortened again to 5 or 6 years.

It just sucks how much salary plays a factor into fan perspective in the NHL. A lot of good players take a lot of heat for no reason other than the money the money they make. You don’t see that in other sports. Salary is pretty much irrelevant.

Basketball is where fans don’t go up in arms regarding salaries bc their cap structure are really flexible in a way that teams can trade away a bad contract without giving up huge assets.
Football got guaranteed and non guaranteed contracts.
Baseball got no cap.
Same with Euro football.

Fans concern about the cap got more to do with wanting the team to have better players in order to have a better chance at winning the Cup.

From a player’s perspective, they should not take a discount bc I hate taking discount for my job and why should they. But if players want to win, something got to give. Like working harder in the off season, like what Kobe did, he said he would put in 2-3hrs of extra work compare to other players and in a yr or so that’s will add up to a lot more than other players. If our boys do that, it could lead to scoring more than ONE goal in a playoff series.

You mentioned goaltending is key in playoffs, but did Vas crapped the bed against us this past playoffs or did the Leafs collectively made life miserable for Vas? Look at a lot of the goals scored, they were tip ins or deflections or at the very least someone was in front of the net.

 

[leafs in five]

This is despite the fact we know his 2nd contract has been over priced.

can't argue with facts

 

[ACC1224]

okay, so the cost you posted were for 16 games. I assume it is for 2 tickets per game and MLSE will refund for games that didn't play.

Yes two tickets per game. Like I said they only charge once the game is guaranteed to be played ie. they don’t charge for game 5 until both teams have won a game.

 

[Gabriel426]

Yes two tickets per game. Like I said they only charge once the game is guaranteed to be played ie. they don’t charge for game 5 until both teams have won a game.

I see I see, thanks for the info.

 

[leafs in five]

Basketball is where fans don’t go up in arms regarding salaries bc their cap structure are really flexible in a way that teams can trade away a bad contract without giving up huge assets.

If I understand correctly players also earn the eligibility to be paid more through individual achievements? e.g. Jaylen Brown making all-NBA entitled him to the super max extension. and the Celtics are likely happy with that outcome because it allows them to pay more than other teams could to retain their asset. and you would always prefer to have a superstar than not? and to fill out the roster lesser/role players might take less to play alongside a superstar on a contender, maybe to increase their chances of earning a payday down the road. as Bertuzzi and Domi seem to have done here.

 

[leafs in five]

if the Leafs won the Stanley Cup I would absolutely watch highlight reels of the games involved. as I did of the games involved in their 2nd round exit this year. Oh well

 

[Stamkos4life]

can't argue with facts

You also can't argue with people who have drunk too much kool-aid.

No amount of facts or logic can break through the haze.

 

[leafs in five]

You also can't argue with people who have drunk too much kool-aid.

No amount of facts or logic can break through the haze.

tell me about it like I'm at the point where I just want to see my favourite players get paid as much as possible preferably to the detriment of the team's chances to win a cup

 

[Stamkos4life]

Mackinnon just won the cup. He's 7th in playoff ppg since 1970 with at least 20 games. His regular season ppg is 1.41 since 2019-2020 which ranks 3rd.

Matthews just won 1 single round. He's tied for 88th in playoff ppg, same time frame. His regular season ppg is 1.25 in the same period which is 7th.

Matthews contract has zero comparables. Almost all of the young star players have been signing long term and for a reasonable amount.

Also, the rationalization for this contract is even worse that his last. Somehow it's a good thing we didn't sign him for 8 years because he's a risk with his injuries but at the same time it's fine to make him the highest paid player despite his injury risk. Make it make sense.

This deal will probably cost us one of marrner or Nylander and will cause both to ask for more.

tell me about it like I'm at the point where I just want to see my favourite players get paid as much as possible preferably to the detriment of the team's chances to win a cup

That's quite a run on sentence with literally nothing in it.

 

[leafs in five]

do you want to keep Marner and Nylander?

Mackinnon didn't just win the cup btw, they lost to an expansion team, pretty embarrassing!

 

[Legion34]

You also can't argue with people who have drunk too much kool-aid.

No amount of facts or logic can break through the haze.

You think Matthews’s did isn’t even 14% of the cap? 2 time rocket. 1 goal off a 3rd and the season stopped. Hart

You can’t be serious.

He clearly earned his context. Let’s hope he earns this one

 

[francis246]

If I understand correctly players also earn the eligibility to be paid more through individual achievements? e.g. Jaylen Brown making all-NBA entitled him to the super max extension. and the Celtics are likely happy with that outcome because it allows them to pay more than other teams could to retain their asset. and you would always prefer to have a superstar than not? and to fill out the roster lesser/role players might take less to play alongside a superstar on a contender, maybe to increase their chances of earning a payday down the road. as Bertuzzi and Domi seem to have done here.

Yes their contracts are heavily incentivized and they can earn max contracts based on all NBA team status. Even in the NBA if you remain with the team that drafted you after a number of years your eligible for a SUPER Max. I don’t understand why these things can’t be implemented into the NHL. Even with a salary cap. Again it’s nothing more than an archaic organization saying this is how things have been and we aren’t changing it.

 

[Racer88]

I would be in the camp of thinking taking less is very stupid on an athletes part. You get one life, you get one career and that can be taken from you at any moment. Maximize your career earnings as much as possible. Fans and organizations will turn on you instantly. But again I think the star players should support each other by all taking their true value. I do think in the next CBA contract length will be shortened again to 5 or 6 years.

It just sucks how much salary plays a factor into fan perspective in the NHL. A lot of good players take a lot of heat for no reason other than the money the money they make. You don’t see that in other sports. Salary is pretty much irrelevant.

It only matters to fans because of the hard cap system And in Matthews case he is not a very good playoff performer

 

[Gary Nylund]

Why are you here man? You hate the Leafs. How much time have you spent on here whining about the Leafs. This is about my 10th post since the Leafs lost. How many do you have? 400? 500? 1000? How many of them are you whining? The only thing you say that matters is the playoffs, then why don't you just stop posting and stop watching until the playoffs? How much of your time do you waste on hear whining about the team that you hate? How many rounds of golf do you have in this summer? How many more could you have if you just stopped whining on line about the Leafs? It's bizarre. I really and truly feel sorry for you. Once the Leafs lost to the Habs you snapped and it got worse after game 3 against Florida. Why on earth would you spend so much time on a team that you hate? Your sir have a problem.

Almost everything in this post is wrong and you seem really angry. Since I don't know where you live I'm not sure whether recommending Xanax or Ativan is more appropriate. Do try to take it easy, talk to your doctor and good luck!

Like you, I really think the Leafs will extend AM in 4 yrs with an 8 yrs deal. Lets just hope Leafs win a Cup and treat that as a reward contract.

+1

I would be in the camp of thinking taking less is very stupid on an athletes part. You get one life, you get one career and that can be taken from you at any moment. Maximize your career earnings as much as possible. Fans and organizations will turn on you instantly. But again I think the star players should support each other by all taking their true value. I do think in the next CBA contract length will be shortened again to 5 or 6 years.

It just sucks how much salary plays a factor into fan perspective in the NHL. A lot of good players take a lot of heat for no reason other than the money the money they make. You don’t see that in other sports. Salary is pretty much irrelevant.

I think most fans don't care about the money they make, it's the cap hit.

 

[ToneDog]

And the oilers still suck ass. And haven’t won shit either. As many people including myself have said, your star players can take all the discounts you want. If your goaltending isn’t there you ain’t winning the cup. In all my years watching hockey I can confidently say the only thing helping you win a cup is quality/hot goaltending. If you get a goalie that peaks at the right time you’re going to have a deep run.

Yup Oilers have failed in the playoffs but that has nothing to do with my point that Drai and McDavid are overperforming their contracts because they are on 8 year deals as opposed to shorter term deals in which case they would be ringing the bell sooner and using up most of the cap increases. As somebody said (could have been you) what does Drai sign for on his next deal ?? Now imagine if that was this year and what it does to the Oilers cap.

Vegas won with a #4G because they had a rock solid D. We have a slightly better goalie but our D pales in comparison with Vegas'. Jury is out if one of our goalies can take us on a deep run.

 

[Stamkos4life]

Every time one of our greedy 3 signs a deal it's all about the times are a changing until the next star signs and we see nothing has changed and these are just exceptionally greedy players

Exactly this.

After dubas signed our Rfas, I was told he "reset" the market.

Almostv5 years later and no gms have given rfas contracts like dubas.

Now we get to here that same excuse all over again.

 

[Nineteen67]

MacKinnon is a winner the same way Stephenson was this year. He wasn't the driving force but he played well and helped the team.

To me, there is little difference between a round and 3, it is just a little more hockey to watch, but it doesn't guarantee future success.

I remember how great our board thought the NYIs were a few years ago.

Mac has 100 points in 77 playoff games and is +34 . He had 13 g 11a 24 pts the year he won his Cup.

Matthews has 44 points in 50 games and is +/- 0 which includes the play in and the Montreal series.

The Isles were good. They were in the eastern final, twice.

Yeah, because he plays on a better team. Even with his inferior regular season numbers, Colorado gets the play the wild card team in the 1st round. The Leafs have tougher competition in the 1st round than Colorado as Colorado keeps winning their division - the Leafs do not, even with Matthews contributing more in the regular season than MacKinnon.

Does Montreal ring any bell

 

[leafs in five]

Yes their contracts are heavily incentivized and they can earn max contracts based on all NBA team status. Even in the NBA if you remain with the team that drafted you after a number of years your eligible for a SUPER Max. I don’t understand why these things can’t be implemented into the NHL. Even with a salary cap. Again it’s nothing more than an archaic organization saying this is how things have been and we aren’t changing it.

rigidity of the NHL cap system seems even more absurd for the LTIR exception, basically the only flexibility is this scout's honour get out of jail free card

 

[Kazparov]

I don't know why Matthews gets so much hate.

He just signed for the Leafs for 9 years for under the same AAV McDavid got for 8. His caps were much higher when he signed - but you'd think he's making 20% X 8 by the comments here.

The is Leafs HF sir. Logic and reason do not apply here. Only blazing hot garbage takes appealing to emotion.

 

[ACC1224]

The is Leafs HF sir. Logic and reason do not apply here. Only blazing hot garbage takes appealing to emotion.

If you hate everything it proves you have deeper insight.

 

[leafs in five]

I think most fans don't care about the money they make, it's the cap hit.

I mean when people are saying he's motivated by nothing other than greed the distinction is kind of erased

 

[leafs in five]

If you hate everything it proves you have deeper insight.

and that you love the team while others who like the best players on the team do not

 

[Stamkos4life]

If you don't think a player's current pay structure relative to the team doesn't matter for their future negotiations then keep simping for Dubas.

The lack of logic coming from the rationalizations is astounding.

Of course their previous contract has a huge impact on their new deals. To suggest otherwise is a sign of a massive Homer or someone who can't think for themselves.

 

[al secord]

I guess the playbook is..."i'm trying to find the negative, i'm backed in a corner...blame Dubas!"