Breaking: Eight-year deal off the table for Matthews in Toronto!

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Published 5 years ago
Breaking: Eight-year deal off the table for Matthews in Toronto!
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Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas cancelled practice on Tuesday and met with media to talk about the progress in the Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner contract discussions. 

Leafs insider Chris Johnston therefore revealed that Dubas reported that the team has made progress on an extension with Matthews and hope to have it in place before the February 25th Trade Deadline. Marner, as we all know, would prefer to wait until the offseason to negotiate.

However, what does it mean when Dubas says he thinks he can settle a deal with Matthews ahead of the trade deadline, in almost a month day to day? According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, it could mean that an eight-year deal is off the table. Here is how he explains it in his latest 31 Thoughts column on Sportsnet

"How to interpret Toronto GM Kyle Dubas’s proclamation that the Maple Leafs are having good dialogue with Auston Matthews? My take is this: both team and agent Judd Moldaver see an eight-year deal as extremely unlikely. The salary would be too high for the team, which wants to keep the best possible team around him and knows Mitch Marner’s agent, Darren Ferris, is waiting to see Matthews’s cap number. A four-year contract walks him right to unrestricted free agency, so that’s not happening. We’re looking at a five- or six-year contract. That puts the number under Connor McDavid’s $12.5 million, but exactly where is what’s still to be decided. Dubas’s proclamation that they’d like to know before the deadline means February will be an important month in the process."

You can imagine though that Dubas and the entire organization are just chomping at the bit to get Matthews under contract. Especially considering what a headache it was to get Nylander to sign. 

Many insiders believed that Matthews could top McDavid when it broke down to salary, however, the Maple Leafs' cap situation is one hell of a financial puzzle. Friedman believes that Matthews could set a new record when looking at five-year and six-year deals previously offered to star players in the NHL: 

"The highest five-year contracts in the salary-cap era belong to Sidney Crosby (2008–09 to 2012–13) and Evgeni Malkin (2009–10 to 2013–14), at $8.7 million. The largest six-year deal went to Dany Heatley (2008–09 to 2013–14) at $7.5 million. Assuming Matthews and the Maple Leafs choose either of these lengths, we’re going to have a new record. This term — rather than the max eight — will be the choice for some teams and their restricted free agents."

Interesting. There’s still a lot more to come in Toronto. Stay tuned.

Source: Sportsnet