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In this edition of the hotstove, we share our thoughts on Auston Matthews' lucrative five-year extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Todd Cordell
I think the negativity towards the price of this contract is
way overblown. When Sidney Crosby re-upped for five years coming out of an entry-level contract, he signed for ~17.3% of the cap. When Alex Ovechkin put pen to paper on a monster extension following an ELC, he signed for 16.82% of the cap. Matthews signed for ~14.5% and that's with stars taking a bigger piece of the pie now than they used to in the past.
Would a little more term be nice at $11.64 million? In a perfect world, sure, but it's not as if the Leafs had their lunch stolen from them here. Far from it. Matthews is a truly elite center – he might already be the league's best even-strength goal scorer – and he's still getting better. I think getting him locked up for five years at this price is very reasonable. Ignore the noise.
Sean Maloughney
The true winner from this deal is, of course, Auston Matthews, who did not give the team any discount, plus has the opportunity to escape from Toronto a few years early. I kid.
The deal is a great deal for Matthews but only an alright deal for Toronto. When the Leafs signed Tavares to an 11 million dollar deal, that destroyed any chance of Matthews signing for less than 11 million. The issues for Toronto now is two-fold; they were not able to buy any extra years of free agency from Matthews, and second is what this means for Mitch Marner.
Similar to the Draisaitl camp in Edmonton, the Marner camp has smartly held off negotiations until Matthews got paid. Marner put up 60 points in his rookie season, nearly cracked 70 last year, and is on his way to a 90-100 point season this year...he is going to want to get paid. Anyone who thinks he is going to sign for anything less than double digits is dreaming.
Connor McDavid has set the bar for what the elite players in the league are eyeing for their big dollar contracts. McDavid left money on the table with his 12.5 million dollar deal and was signed for a maximum 8-year deal, so once again...Connor's better.
James Tanner
This is a great contract.
Five years is a long damn time for a hockey team, so it's the best goal scorer in the world, and the second-best player, for way cheaper than his peers (cap percentage wise) who signed an eight-year deal.
The Leafs got Matthews relatively cheap and he's highly unlikely to leave in five years anyway, so good deal.
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