Auston Matthews has been the face of the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise for the past decade since making his debut with the team in 2016. If all goes to plan, Matthews would become a lifelong Maple Leaf while helping the club break the hex to finally bring home the Stanley Cup in the process.
However, with the recent trend of NHL players demanding to be traded away from their parent team that they have been with for a long time, should the Maple Leafs be worried that the same may happen to Matthews in the not-so-distant future?
Should the Maple Leafs be worried about Auston Matthews leaving?
Notable stars such as Brady Tkachuk, Connor Hellebuyck, Dylan Larkin and now even Nikita Kucherov had requested to be moved for a number of reasons after spending a significant number of productive seasons with the team that drafted them. Whether those reasons centred around giving them the best possible chance at winning the Stanley Cup, giving them the luxury of playing closer to home or with family, contract extension amount discrepancies, or just wanting a change of scenery to spark their interest in the game once again, they have paved the way for their demands to be ultimately met by management.
In doing so, Tkachuk has already relocated to the Florida Panthers via trade to reunite with his brother Matthew after spending eight seasons with the Ottawa Senators. Whereas Hellebuyck got his wish to get out of Winnipeg to join the New Jersey Devils this season as well. In the cases for Larkin and Kucherov, both players haven’t been traded yet, but the former has been suspended after refusing to play for the Detroit Red Wings, while the latter has continued to suit up for the Tampa Bay Lightning despite being an unhappy camper.
Circling back to Matthews and the Maple Leafs, the Toronto captain was born in California but grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona. So could the face of the Leafs’ franchise want to move back to his old stomping grounds to finish off the latter half of his hockey career? It is certainly a possibility, as why wouldn’t a player want to go back to their roots to play for their hometown, just like John Tavares had done with the Maple Leafs.
In addition, even though Toronto had made the playoffs in each and every year other than 2026 with Matthews on the team, the Leafs have never gotten past the second round even after nine attempts. So would Matthews want to go to a legitimate contender that could go deep into the playoff run each season to increase his chances of hoisting the Cup? Sure, that certainly would be any NHLer’s dream.
On top of that, given some of Matthews’ injury history in recent years, will the Leafs be willing to pay him top dollar to keep him in Toronto when his contract is up at the end of the 2027-28 season? If he stays healthy and continues to produce at an elite pace, he would justify his amount. But if Matthews runs into more injury woes in the next couple of seasons, that move might not be so certain.
Nevertheless, despite the potential worry of the long-term outlook of the Leafs captain and his tenure with the club, one thing is for certain is that Matthews wants to win and right now, he would want to do it with the Maple Leafs this very season. As a result, Toronto fans should focus on what could happen now and worry about the future later.
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