Auston Matthews caught off guard by Leafs’ crazy deadline moves

Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas was so busy on Tuesday, he even shocked his own players. Yesterday, Dubas traded away Pierre Engvall, and Rasmus Sandin while acquiring Jake McCabe and Sam Lafferty from the Chicago Blackhawks, and Erik Gustafsson and Luke Schenn in separate deals with a total of six new players coming to Toronto over the past 11 days.

Star forward Auston Matthews was asked about his GM’s crazy deadline moves and admitted that he felt the frenzy in the dressing room.

“It’s a bit of a whirlwind, obviously. Just a lot of moving parts right now. So, you just want to kind of take a breath & see what’s going on. I still don’t know everything, like all the details & stuff, because I feel like it just happened like 20 minutes ago,” Matthews said, per Mark Masters of TSN.

However, Matthews was adamant that seeing Dubas working hard at making the club better for the postseason has urged the rest of the Maple Leafs to work just as hard on the ice.

“It’s a two-way street. We recognize the confidence & faith in us &, for us, we want to back him up & prove him right.”

Matthews is especially thrilled to reunite with McCabe, his teammate at the 2016 world championships.

“He’s going to give his all every game. A guy you want on your team & want to go to battle with. I’m really excited.”

In the meantime, Matthews better be prepared for more moves as reports emerged that Dubas might have more trades up his sleeves ahead of Friday’s deadline.

There are still two days before the deadline so everyone needs to saddle up, including Matthews!

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