Toronto Maple Leafs Should Be Happy With Any Matthews Extension

Whether Auston Matthews signs for three or five years, the Toronto Maple Leafs should be excited with any extension.

If you’re the Toronto Maple Leafs, you want to try to sign Auston Matthews to the longest-term contract you can, but if you’re Matthews, you want the most amount of money now on the shortest term possible so you can maximize your lifetime earnings.

As a result, the negotiations are still ongoing and could possibly still continue until after the 2023-24 season. That’s unlikely as both sides seem like they want to get a deal done before this season starts, but nothing has happened yet.

The latest report by Elliotte Friedman (via: NHL Network) was that he believes that Matthews will sign an extension very soon and that the term will be between three and five years.

I know that we’d all prefer to see Matthews sign an eight-year deal, like his counterparts Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, considering that his last deal was only five years, but the most important part right now is that Matthews re-signs.

The NHL is built different that their superstars tend to stay with their franchise for a long time, but the last thing we want to see was what happened with Matthew Tkachuk in Calgary.

The Flames ultimately traded Tkachuk after they couldn’t come to terms on an extension and one-year later, he was a Hart Trophy candidate thanks to his 40 goal, 109 point season and helped lead the Florida Panthers to a Stanley Cup Final appearance.

Toronto Maple Leafs Should Be Happy With Any Matthews Contract

Even during a “down-year” last season, Matthews finished with 40 goals and 85 points. He continued that performance with five goals and 11 points in 11 playoff games and although the team fell in the Second Round, he was played well. If Sergei Bobrovsky didn’t turn back the clock, it’s possible that we’d be talking about Matthews and the Leafs in the Stanley Cup Finals, instead of the Panthers last season.

In seven seasons, Matthews has scored 40 or more goals five times. The only two campaigns he missed that mark was due to injury and if he played 82 games, he would’ve hit it easily.

If you’re comparing Matthews’ first seven seasons to anyone else in the NHL, the best player to look at is Alex Ovechkin. The Great Eight played more games, but on a per game basis, he averaged 0.61 Goals Per Game, won a Calder Trophy, an Art Ross Trophy, two Hart Trophies and two Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophies.

As for Matthews, he’s averaging 0.62 Goals Per Game, won a Calder Trophy, a Hart Trophy and two “Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophies.

At this time in Ovechkin’s career, he’d only advanced to the Second Round twice and despite his accolades was always looked as second-fiddle to Sidney Crosby.

Matthews continues to get that negativity in the media, but as Ovechkin showed during his career, you have to be patient and one of these years it will all click for this team, if they invest in their best player.

If Matthews only signs for three years, that’s fine. It will push him into his 11th NHL season and will give the Toronto Maple Leafs four more cracks at a Stanley Cup as their leader. Obviously, you’d love for him to sign for five years to guarantee him into his 13th year, as that was the season Ovechkin finally won his first Stanley Cup, but you have to take what you can get.

Matthews, in my opinion, is the greatest player to ever play for this franchise, so whether he signs here for three or five more years, it doesn’t matter right now. All they need to do is make sure he re-signs, as they can’t let what happened to Tkachuk in Calgary happen to Matthews in Toronto.