Toronto Maple Leafs: Treliving Deserves Credit For Matthews Signing

Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving just completed the most important task of his first year on the job. He signed franchise cornerstone Auston Matthews to a new deal.

Treliving was presented with an unusually high volume of offseason items to complete when he agreed to become the Toronto Maple Leafs GM.

He faced an exodus of unrestricted free agents from last year’s team that he had to either resign or replace. Plus, decisions had to be made around Matthews and fellow core forward William Nylander.

Treliving had a short runway to get things done. He is proving he is up to the task.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Treliving Deserves Credit For Matthews Signing

Imagine yourself in Treliving’s shoes as he began his first few weeks on the job.

First, he had roughly three weeks to make decisions on his own free agents, six of which were significant players from the previous season.

Next, came filling out the roster with new pieces, and doing so with a relatively limited amount of cap space to fill multiple spots.

Lastly, the most arduous task. Get Matthews and Nylander signed to contract extensions. Better yet, get them done before the season starts to avoid any potential major distractions.

At some point, he also had to find time to meet his new players and staff. Then, have purposeful conversations with them all.

Mission accomplished on the Matthews front. In about two months time Treliving has impressed his most important player enough to convince him that reupping with the Leafs was in his best interests.

On top of that, the deal gets better each year for the Leafs.

Matthews Deal Has Benefits For The Toronto Maple Leafs

The NHL collective bargaining agreement states that the maximum percentage of the salary cap that any one player can earn is 20 percent.

With the salary cap expected to increase to $87.5 million for the 2024-2025 season, Matthews’ AAV of $13.25 million works out to almost 16% of the Leafs salary cap allotment.

Assuming the salary cap increases linearly at roughly $3 million per year, a modest assumption, the $13.25 million AAV will look better each year. (info capfriendly.com).

In the 2025-2026 season, the Matthews cap hit would be 14.4% if the cap was say, $92 million. If it were $95 million for the 2026-2027 season, the percentage cap hit would be just under 14.

For the final season of the Matthews’ extension, the cap hit would be 13.5%, extrapolating to a $98 million NHL salary cap.

A modest $3 million annual NHL salary cap increase sees each subsequent year of Matthews’ deal move further away from the 20% player maximum.

What does getting Matthews for less than 20% of the cap mean for the Leafs? In the 2024-2025 season, they now have an extra $3.5 million to spend elsewhere.

Each ensuring year would see them have $4.6, $5.7, and $6.175 million respectively in extra salary cap space.

Contract Precedent Will Help Sign Other Stars

By getting the Matthews deal done first, Treliving now has a benchmark with which to work from when negotiating with his other top players.

A number and salary cap percentage has been set for the Toronto Maple Leafs best player.

Nylander is the next core player in search of a new contract. Treliving can now reference what he is paying his best player and use that as leverage. The same holds true when Mitch Marner will be eligible for an extension next summer.

Outside of odd circumstances such as a career year or winning NHL trophies, it now becomes more difficult for Nylander and Marner to ask for the moon in their discussions with the team.

Better yet, they notice Matthews and the Leafs met in the middle and resolved his contract, for the benefit of both.

Treliving still has work to do, but getting the Matthews extension done in a timely fashion bodes well for the Toronto Maple Leafs.