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Toronto Maple Leafs: Auston Matthews Isn’t Going Anywhere

By Ben Dackiw

MONTREAL, QC - MAY 25: Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs looks on prior to a face-off against the Montreal Canadiens during the first period in Game Four of the First Round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Bell Centre on May 25, 2021 in Montreal, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - MAY 25: Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs looks on prior to a face-off against the Montreal Canadiens during the first period in Game Four of the First Round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Bell Centre on May 25, 2021 in Montreal, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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The Toronto Maple Leafs best player has quite the performance to follow up on in the 2021-22 season.

Auston Matthews not only won the Maurice Richard trophy as the NHL’s leading goal scorer, he was also recently named as EA Sports’ NHL cover athlete, the second time in three years he’s been given the honor. The Toronto Maple Leafs superstar joined Alex Ovechkin and Jonathan Toews as the only players to be featured on the cover twice.

Matthews is signed by the Leafs through 2024, but the fact that his contract makes him an unrestricted free-agent when it’s up has Leafs fans nervous.

Should they be?

Toronto Maple Leafs and Auston Matthews

They should not. There is simply no better place for a man like Auston Matthews than Toronto.

It’s the Leafs. Despite what the other Canadian NHL fans would have you believe, The Leafs run everything. The endorsement money (which also played a role in luring John Tavares back home) he would lose if he left is obscene. And he would lose it to what? play in a larger market? I’ve seen the list of American markets that are bigger than Toronto.  It’s two cities long. 

There is no reason to suspect that market size would enter into the equation, but if it did, it leaves only California and the New York teams. It’s impossible to see anyone leaving the Leafs to play for the Kings, Sharks, Ducks or Islanders.  The Rangers? I concede that would be an attractive team, but they likely won’t have the cap space because their young core will all need contracts by then.

Now. One team I see being brought up consistently is Arizona. Matthews grew up in Scottsdale so it makes sense from that perspective.

The Coyotes are in the midst of a full scale rebuild and could be on the verge of contending again when Matthews becomes a free agent. There are two issues with this: 1. It will take a boat load of cash to pry our man away from Toronto and 2. The Arizona Coyotes might not even be in Arizona by the time Auston becomes a free agent. Arizona is the only place I could really see Matthews leaving Toronto for, and they probably won’t even have a team in 2024.

As for the on-ice, the Toronto Maple Leafs, they have put a competitive product on the ice every single season since drafting Auston Matthews. There isn’t a single team that can promise Matthews more than the Leafs and that is a fact.

Next. Leafs Cap Update. dark

There isn’t a more equipped team to win a cup that could make a run at Matthews than the Leafs. We all saw his face after game 7 against Montreal. He wants to bring Cups HERE. Not Arizona. Not LA. Not New York. Auston Matthews is a Leaf.

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