[Proposal] Matthews walks to Anaheim via free agency

[IBatch]

7 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said:

I think Toronto will trade him before July 1.  Probably at the draft.  Not sure where he will go though.  Could be like a Tkachuk type trade where Matthews signs a huge extension afterwards...

All Dubas or whomever needs to do, is bring him into the office and say they won't be re-signing him and want him to waive his clause, and pick some teams so they can start working the phones.    You can absolutely bet he's been thinking about his free agency and his next contract.    And he's smart enough to know he'd be doing them dirty if he just keeps saying he wants to be a Leaf, and then goes somewhere else, and they get zero zilch for him.    Like Tavares in NYI, he won't get a nice fan reaction that's for sure, and well the Leaf fanbase is all over the place.   Not sure he wants that following him around like a stinky shadow for the next 3-5 years.     He's either got to sign an extension with them this summer, or all of us fans are going to endure a drama queen special by the media throughout the 2023-2024 season.   I hope he's bright enough to get this, and if he won't sign just gets on with it.    Look at our fanbase and Horvat this year lol.   Became "Horvat vs Miller" and we sucked, weren't even a playoff team.   Imagine what Leafs nation must be doing right now over Mathews, and what sort of haul they are expecting lol.   Something stunning and ridiculous i'm sure, and the longer this takes, the more annoying it's going to become. 

 

Heck this isn't even a Canuck trade proposal.   Why not at least go there for our sakes (CDC).    What would it cost us to trade for Mathews, and re-sign him.    Guess he's going to get 13 x 8 at the very least.   Highest paid NHL player (until Draisatl does his deal, and well, i'd much rather have him, he actually performs when it matters).    So Miller of course adios, and this years pick and the following one too.   TO won't retain, so we also will have to give them some other things ... Podz and whom else?  Not a rental at the draft, not really.    So i'd say 3 first rounders, Miller and Podz.   Not sure who else they'd even consider... and this deal doesn't make a lot of sense for TO, sure they could do a lot better.  

 

As for ANA, they'd be asking for McTavish or this years first.   That's the main piece coming back.    Then some other things as well.  

 

Edit: Food for thought.  Mathews goes to free agency, he's going to be even younger and more sought after then Stamkos was,  and he was considered the best free agent to go to market at that age ever.    SJ offered him the moon, so did TO.    Tavares was a close second.   And if you look at their ages,  Mathews is going to be right there with them.   Now consider how both those deals went for their respective teams.   Tavares can't really be considered an anchor, pretty good one two punch down the middle.   Stamkos was injured half the time ... they won a cup.   And well he's actually taking home about what Tavares is after taxes, food for thought.   Of the two who has done more for their team since the deal?   A healthy Stamkos, is the better player.    Leafs weren't complaining when Tavares was scoring 40 plus goals and freeing up Mathews to do even more.   That's a lot of goals from the middle.   

 

 Don't expect  Mathews be any different.   Stamkos was a goal machine until he got injured too.  Both guys were first overall picks,  Tavares had the most hype and the biggest pedigree going into the draft, and actually mostly kept up to the hype as well.    Whomever gets Mathews,  should expect maybe half the deal to work out, the other half ok at best, and to be overpaying, that is unless he goes to ARI, Seattle, Dallas, Florida, Vegas or TB and takes the tax discount into consideration.   Of those teams only Seattle and ARI can make it work.   And not sure they won't be overpaying anyways.   13 million in TO, is around 11 in those cities, to match net pay.  

 

Stamkos could have had a cap hit higher than McDavids had he done the 7 year deal in SJ,  13 was rumoured to be on the table.   Curiously, by adding the one year, and only doing take home pay (net), the deal he signed with TB was identical to that.   TO was rumoured to be willing to match any deal. 

Edited May 14, 2023 by IBatch

[BarnBurner]

1 hour ago, IBatch said:

All Dubas or whomever needs to do, is bring him into the office and say they won't be re-signing him and want him to waive his clause, and pick some teams so they can start working the phones.    You can absolutely bet he's been thinking about his free agency and his next contract.    And he's smart enough to know he'd be doing them dirty if he just keeps saying he wants to be a Leaf, and then goes somewhere else, and they get zero zilch for him.    Like Tavares in NYI, he won't get a nice fan reaction that's for sure, and well the Leaf fanbase is all over the place.   Not sure he wants that following him around like a stinky shadow for the next 3-5 years.     He's either got to sign an extension with them this summer, or all of us fans are going to endure a drama queen special by the media throughout the 2023-2024 season.   I hope he's bright enough to get this, and if he won't sign just gets on with it.    Look at our fanbase and Horvat this year lol.   Became "Horvat vs Miller" and we sucked, weren't even a playoff team.   Imagine what Leafs nation must be doing right now over Mathews, and what sort of haul they are expecting lol.   Something stunning and ridiculous i'm sure, and the longer this takes, the more annoying it's going to become. 

 

Heck this isn't even a Canuck trade proposal.   Why not at least go there for our sakes (CDC).    What would it cost us to trade for Mathews, and re-sign him.    Guess he's going to get 13 x 8 at the very least.   Highest paid NHL player (until Draisatl does his deal, and well, i'd much rather have him, he actually performs when it matters).    So Miller of course adios, and this years pick and the following one too.   TO won't retain, so we also will have to give them some other things ... Podz and whom else?  Not a rental at the draft, not really.    So i'd say 3 first rounders, Miller and Podz.   Not sure who else they'd even consider... and this deal doesn't make a lot of sense for TO, sure they could do a lot better.  

 

As for ANA, they'd be asking for McTavish or this years first.   That's the main piece coming back.    Then some other things as well.  

 

Edit: Food for thought.  Mathews goes to free agency, he's going to be even younger and more sought after then Stamkos was,  and he was considered the best free agent to go to market at that age ever.    SJ offered him the moon, so did TO.    Tavares was a close second.   And if you look at their ages,  Mathews is going to be right there with them.   Now consider how both those deals went for their respective teams.   Tavares can't really be considered an anchor, pretty good one two punch down the middle.   Stamkos was injured half the time ... they won a cup.   And well he's actually taking home about what Tavares is after taxes, food for thought.   Of the two who has done more for their team since the deal?   A healthy Stamkos, is the better player.    Leafs weren't complaining when Tavares was scoring 40 plus goals and freeing up Mathews to do even more.   That's a lot of goals from the middle.   

 

 Don't expect  Mathews be any different.   Stamkos was a goal machine until he got injured too.  Both guys were first overall picks,  Tavares had the most hype and the biggest pedigree going into the draft, and actually mostly kept up to the hype as well.    Whomever gets Mathews,  should expect maybe half the deal to work out, the other half ok at best, and to be overpaying, that is unless he goes to ARI, Seattle, Dallas, Florida, Vegas or TB and takes the tax discount into consideration.   Of those teams only Seattle and ARI can make it work.   And not sure they won't be overpaying anyways.   13 million in TO, is around 11 in those cities, to match net pay.  

 

Stamkos could have had a cap hit higher than McDavids had he done the 7 year deal in SJ,  13 was rumoured to be on the table.   Curiously, by adding the one year, and only doing take home pay (net), the deal he signed with TB was identical to that.   TO was rumoured to be willing to match any deal. 

"So i'd say 3 first rounders, Miller and Podz"

 

I know you're just spitballing, but there's no way I would make that deal. 

 

Hell, he couldn't even lead the Make Believes to the promise land. 

 

He's simply not worth it. Plus the fact that some dumb ass team is going to pay up to or more than $13 mil a year, is absolutely asinine. 

 

Major pass. What a waste of cap space, and any chance of building a contending team. 

[BarnBurner]

14 hours ago, Alflives said:

That might be Matthews’ plan from the moment he signed a contract that takes him to free agency with a NMC in the last season. He could go home and be the saviour of hockey there. Quite a legacy. Don’t know if he cares about that stuff though. 
Leafs should trade him though for the best return they can muster. 

Toronto's best bet is to incite a bidding war by next year's trade deadline. 

[Alflives]

7 minutes ago, BarnBurner said:

Toronto's best bet is to incite a bidding war by next year's trade deadline. 

They should do that prior to this coming draft. If there’s any indication he’s walking to free agency July 2024 then he needs to be traded before his No trade kicks in July 2023. 
The thing with Matthews is will ant club pony up a good offer if he’s only a one year rental? 

[BarnBurner]

1 minute ago, Alflives said:

They should do that prior to this coming draft. If there’s any indication he’s walking to free agency July 2024 then he needs to be traded before his No trade kicks in July 2023. 
The thing with Matthews is will ant club pony up a good offer if he’s only a one year rental? 

That's their problem, not ours. 

 

But seriously, they would, if there's an agreement to sign prior. 

 

I wouldn't want him on my team. A waste of cap space for a player who doesn't bring it when it matters most. 

 

Some sucker team is going to bite.... hard. 

 

They can have 'em. 

[Gurn]

Mathews will be 26 before next season starts.

I'd be very careful on trade value.

[nux_win]

That's a long walk ...

 

GCG!

[Westcoasting]

10 hours ago, Alflives said:

Why pay any assets when Matthews can be signed July 1, 2024 as a free agent. Coyotes can afford to wait. 

If they had Mike Gillis there then yeah they would let him walk for nothing!

[DownUndaCanuck]

There's a couple of teams who desperately need a top line center. I wonder if Boston make an offer, could you imagine...

 

Matthews for Zacha + DeBrusk + Carlo + 1st (2025) or a prospect

 

Toronto essentially trade one star for 3 solid secondary guys to add some depth to their top-heavy team.
Boston get their star center to play with Pastrnak and Marchand to keep them relevant.

[Coconuts]

12 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said:

I think Toronto will trade him before July 1.  Probably at the draft.  Not sure where he will go though.  Could be like a Tkachuk type trade where Matthews signs a huge extension afterwards...

Maybe, I'm not convinced he's looking to commit. Depends on the location and the dollars I suppose. I wouldn't be shocked to see him hit UFA. 

 

Teams aren't going to pay what he's probably worth without an extension in place, I'm hoping Toronto draws the short straw.

 

11 hours ago, shiznak said:

I could see him going to Florida for Ekblad+, if Florida is comfortable with Montour as their #1 defensemen.

 

I suggested in the Toronto playoff thread; Ekblad, Duclair, and a pick for Matthews and Robertson. Florida has enough cap space in 2025 to re-sign Matthews to an extension, Toronto gets a #1 RHD defensemen, and a bit more cap space to re-sign O’Reilly. 

I don't see it, Florida's gone further and Ekblad has a full NMC. Why would Ekblad take what'd likely be a sizeable pay cut to play for the rivals they just beat? The tax benefits in Florida earn him quite a bit more on his current deal. Plus, Florida's likely a better team as they currently are than they would be adding Matthews to what's already a top heavy team capwise. 

 

9 hours ago, FaninMex said:

I think Mathews is not staying in Toronto. He is like a few others who want to get their stats in the regular season and then go golfing. 

I think he will go to a US team with little care from the media, score the goals and drift when he wants to. Whoever signs him to a long deal will regret it.

I reckon he'll end up in the US. As for regret, I dunno, he'll be 26 to start next season so there's a good chance you'd get good value out of him for most of his deal. Whether it'd be worth what he's being paid is another question but as the cap jumps all contracts of the league are going to go up anyway. 

 

The top guys always end up eating up more of cap increases and we've been hearing that we can expect bigger jumps sooner than later for a while. Hughes could break 10-11M by the time his current deal is up if he continues to produce the way he is. 

 

9 hours ago, Drakrami said:

I feel like Leafs will trade Matthews to Arizona for a buttload. 

I've no doubt they'll try, I doubt they'll get full value without an extension in place though.

 

2 hours ago, BarnBurner said:

Toronto's best bet is to incite a bidding war by next year's trade deadline. 

Not sure they'll get that chance if it's not done sooner than later. Once Matthews's NMC kicks in he's in the driver's seat. 

 

2 hours ago, Gurn said:

Mathews will be 26 before next season starts.

I'd be very careful on trade value.

I could see him being positive value for 7-8 years, he's an elite talent in the league like him or not, question is whether he'll be worth whatever he ends up earning. 

 

[Coconuts]

3 minutes ago, DownUndaCanuck said:

There's a couple of teams who desperately need a top line center. I wonder if Boston make an offer, could you imagine...

 

Matthews for Zacha + DeBrusk + Carlo + 1st (2025) or a prospect

 

Toronto essentially trade one star for 3 solid secondary guys to add some depth to their top-heavy team.
Boston get their star center to play with Pastrnak and Marchand to keep them relevant.

Boston could use a guy sooner than later, certainly. They're bound by cap constraints and trade clauses though and Pasta's raise will further complicate things. Boston's in a place where they're built to compete with our without Bergeron but their prospect pool is looking pretty shallow nowadays, it'll be interesting to see how long they can put off a rebuild or retool of some sort. 

[DownUndaCanuck]

1 hour ago, Coconuts said:

Boston could use a guy sooner than later, certainly. They're bound by cap constraints and trade clauses though and Pasta's raise will further complicate things. Boston's in a place where they're built to compete with our without Bergeron but their prospect pool is looking pretty shallow nowadays, it'll be interesting to see how long they can put off a rebuild or retool of some sort. 

They need a top line center desperately. Talented wingers, such a solid defence and great goalie tandem, but what was once their strength is now their weakness at center. Obviously Bergeron and Krejci did a good job last year and Zacha has looked good for them, but none of these guys are even PPG scorers. I know there's different ways to build a team and if you've got Pastrnak and Marchand scoring at rediculous rates, you could argue that their centers could just be defensively sound 60 point scorers, but it really showed in the playoffs when they didn't have a healthy top center to play the matchup game.

 

Marchand is only getting older as well and will surely slow down sooner rather than later, Hall may be on his way out, if not he's up there too. They need a solid top young center who can drop 80+ points.

 

If Matthews is out of the question I wonder if they'd be happy with Tavares?

[Toews]

Matthews isn't going to Arizona and Anaheim, he will either re-sign with Toronto or be traded to LA or New York. Those are the only two markets where he has more money to earn more money off the ice in sponsorships. If I were to put together a proposal it would be Zibanejad, Schneider, 1st round pick for Matthews. 

[BigTramFan]

31 minutes ago, Toews said:

Matthews isn't going to Arizona and Anaheim, he will either re-sign with Toronto or be traded to LA or New York. Those are the only two markets where he has more money to earn more money off the ice in sponsorships. If I were to put together a proposal it would be Zibanejad, Schneider, 1st round pick for Matthews. 

Agree that TOR most likely will resign Matthews. Don't see Zib involved in any trade as he has a full NMC.

[Quantum]

I think Auston Matthews goes to Arizona and saves the franchise. That's what I believe. They'll have the cap space to give him the biggest contract in NHL history next summer if he chooses to walk.

[IBatch]

10 hours ago, BarnBurner said:

"So i'd say 3 first rounders, Miller and Podz"

 

I know you're just spitballing, but there's no way I would make that deal. 

 

Hell, he couldn't even lead the Make Believes to the promise land. 

 

He's simply not worth it. Plus the fact that some dumb ass team is going to pay up to or more than $13 mil a year, is absolutely asinine. 

 

Major pass. What a waste of cap space, and any chance of building a contending team. 

I never said i'd like to do it, I wouldn't want Mathews - not at his cap hit now, and definitely not at the cap hit he's going to be getting which was the point I was trying to make.   Especially at the cost they'd be asking.   I'd rather keep Miller,  and our picks.   And Podz and Hogs or whomever else they'd be asking for.    What do you think TO would ask any fanbase for Mathews?   I'm guessing quite a lot.  

[IBatch]

9 hours ago, Gurn said:

Mathews will be 26 before next season starts.

I'd be very careful on trade value.

Horvat was how old?   He got us a decent haul for a rental. 

[BarnBurner]

1 minute ago, IBatch said:

I never said i'd like to do it, I wouldn't want Mathews - not at his cap hit now, and definitely not at the cap hit he's going to be getting which was the point I was trying to make.   Especially at the cost they'd be asking.   I'd rather keep Miller,  and our picks.   And Podz and Hogs or whomever else they'd be asking for.    What do you think TO would ask any fanbase for Mathews?   I'm guessing quite a lot.  

I understood you were only suggesting what they may want, but I'm not sold on him as somebody I'd even want part of my team. 

 

But like I said, some dumb ass team is going to offer the moon, whether it's via a trade, or his next contract. 

 

I personally don't want the Canucks to be any part of that. 

 

And you're right, when/if he's traded, he will get quite the return. 

 

Someone also mentioned he has a NMC kicking in July 1? 

 

 

[Alflives]

4 minutes ago, IBatch said:

Horvat was how old?   He got us a decent haul for a rental. 

And Matthews is a way better player than Bo. The concern with Matthews though is he likely wants to get to free agency so he can pick where he wants to play. Bo was only interested in getting possible contract. 
 

[Gurn]

7 minutes ago, IBatch said:

Horvat was how old?   He got us a decent haul for a rental. 

I know it worked out ok for us, but perhaps not for the Islanders.

Who ever trades for Mathews can't give up too much, or they will end up being the team Mathews walks from. Bit of a dilemma- who can give up the assets and cap space for him, and still have a credible team left for him to play with.