Auston Matthews Is Very Much In The Market To Get Paid This Summer
So there’s not much going on in the hockey world right now. At least nothing of importance. However, there is this little piece of information as we inch closer and closer to the 2018 offseason.
This is going to be a pretty busy offseason for the Toronto Maple Leafs. For starters, James van Riemsdyk will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and William Nylander will become a restricted free agent that day as well. I think at this point everybody knows that the Maple Leafs will be moving on from JvR considering they have a fuck ton of money they have to spend over the next two summers. Because not only do you have to pay William Nylander this summer, but Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Kasperi Kapanen will all enter the final year on their ELC this summer. Connor Carrick, Tyler Bozak and Leo Komarov are also all hitting UFA on July 1st as well.
Here is a photo of Brendan Shanahan smirking at 32-year-old General Manager Kyle Dubas because he knows this fucker has no idea what he just stepped into.
Hopefully Kyle Dubas didn’t make any plans for this summer because he’s going to be busy as frickin’ heck. And it all has to revolve around Auston Matthews, who just so happened to switch to the same agency that got Connor McDavid a $12.5M/8-year contract last summer. And that was with McDavid leaving some money on the table to free up some space for the Oilers to extend Draisaitl and still have a few extra dollars to buy a cheeseburger or something with this summer.
Do I think that Auston Matthews will get $12.5M this summer? No idea. I feel like probably not considering McDavid was the Art Ross Trophy winner the last two years, even before his new contract kicks in next year, and Auston Matthews isn’t quite at that “best player in the world” caliber yet. But I also feel like you don’t switch agencies in June right before your negotiations can start in July if you’re not looking to at least get something close to McDavid money. Jack Eichel got $10M/8-years, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Auston Matthews try to split the difference there.
Either way, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a bunch of new contracts they need to bang out here and all of them will be based on how much money is left after the Matthews extension. So it would probably make a decent amount of sense to get Auston taken care of pretty quickly this summer. Which will continue my favorite summer tradition as of late–watching guys who are many years younger than I become stupid filthy rich while I have anxiety over checking my bank account after a night at the bar in which I purchase anything more than three (3) drinks.