Auston Matthews hasn't scored on an actual goalie since January 22nd. That is ten league games and three 4 Nations Games where the best goal scorer alive hasn't been able to find the back of the net.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have won seven of those ten games, so I'm not sure how much it matters, but it's worth watching. Matthews missed a bunch of games, went to Germany, came back, was still hurt, eventually started playing again, played in the 4 Nations (though he missed a game) and now he's playing but obviously not as himself.
If I had to guess, I would say that he has a chronic injury that needs surgery to repar, likely his shoulder, but that isn't going to get worse if he plays through it, so since getting surgery would cause him to miss the rest of this season, he's going to wait until after the Leafs lose in the playoffs to have it. (cap info puckpedia.com).
But that's just a guess.
The Maple Leafs Win Again + How Injured Is Matthews? + Enough Lame Trade Rumours
Despite the Matthews injury, the Leafs won't ever have a better shot to win than right now. They beat the Rangers last night to bring their record to 7-1 in February, and are in first place in the Atlantic right now with a game in hand.
And since they won last night, and keep winning they are going to have to do a lot better than the current crop of trade rumours. The Leafs are going nowhere unless they add one or more star players currently in their 20s.
The Leafs could avoid Tampa and Florida and Boston in the first round of the playoffs, have home ice advantage throughout (catching Washington at this point seems likely), and it's the last year where they for sure have Mitch Marner and John Tavares.
Rielly and Tavares and OEL and Tanev and McCabe aren't getting any better. The trio of Nylander, Marner, Matthews are all in their primes. The team has trade capital (Knies, Cowan, Minten and draft picks) and if they were creative they could find some cap space (Kampf, Domi, Timmins, Reaves, Jarnkrok, OEL).
They are also getting the best goaltending the franchise has seen in 20 years. Everything seems to be coming together for the Leafs and so the time to make a big move is upon us.
If not now, when?
The Leafs need to swing a trade for a number-one defenseman. Everyone says their biggest need is at centre, but that isn't true. Their blue-line is bad and having everyone drop down one spot would do more for helping them win this year than any other move.
Noah Dobson makes the same as Domi and is known to be available. The Leafs need to do whatever it takes to land him. If the cost is Knies, a first and Domi than that is the cost.
If they do that, why stop there? They shoudl turn around and send Cowan and a 1st to the Sabres for Dylan Cozens. Including OEL and Kampf in the deal would allow the cap to work.
Afterwards, the Leafs have two young players that can help them for years, Yeah they stripmined the organization to do so, but they just opened their window up for years on top of what they already had.
Cozens and Dobson allow the Leafs to win this year and keep the process going no matter what happens with Marner and Tavares. Other scenarios see the Leafs adding old guys who won't help later and likely won't even help now.
The Leafs will never have a better opportunity to win the Stanley Cup than they have right now, and so this moment requires their GM to be bold and creative and take a couple of massive swings.
If not Dobson and Cozens, maybe something like Sam Bennett and Bowan Byram. The key is to aquire two star players in their twenties, whoever that may be.