Insider reveals what it will take for Matthews to re-sign with Toronto
There have been a lot of questions about Auston Matthews and his potential future as a Toronto Maple Leaf. In this week's edition of 32 Thoughts , Elliotte Friedman shared his thoughts on the topic.
Friedman shared that he believes that Auston Matthews will re-sign in Toronto, but only if he believes in the direction of the franchise.
The 24-year-old franchise centre is currently in year 3 of a 5 year deal that expires at the end of the 2023-2024, the contract carries a cap hit of $11,640,250.
During the summer Matthews likes to spend his downtime at home in Arizona, where he grew up. There have always been rumors that he might want to sign for the Coyotes, upon becoming a UFA. Lucky for Toronto fans the Coyotes product on the ice has been awful this season and looks pretty bleak for the next couple seasons.
The Coyotes do have a lot of draft picks in the pipe line but there is doubts on how good this team will actually be in three years when Matthews is a UFA. There is also a huge possibility that the Coyotes might not even be playing in Arizona in three years time. They plan on using a 5,000 seat College Arena as their temporary home next season. This should really help them do their part with League Generated Revenue.
Matthews has already broken a few Maple Leafs' records. Including, the fastest Maple Leaf to score 25 goals, most points by a rookie and most goals by a rookie. He broke another record this season by scoring the most consecutive away goals in Leafs' history, with goals in nine consecutive games. Matthews has 49 goal on the year and just needs to score 5 more goals to tie Rick Vaive's single season record for most goals.
Opinion: If Matthews can play his whole career as a Maple Leaf he will have all the goal scoring records. If his friendship with Ontario Born Superstar Justin Bieber has anything to do with his staying with the Blue & White I'll gladly keep buying the Tim Biebs and singing Baby.
| POLL | ||
Will Matthews play his entire career with the Maple Leafs? | ||
| Yes, and retire the greatest Leaf of all time | 175 | 37 % |
| No | 298 | 63 % |
| List of polls | ||
