Rumor: Auston Matthews “would rather not play” with one of his teammates.

More drama for the Maple Leafs.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Rumor: Auston Matthews “would rather not play” with one of his teammates.
Kostas Lymperopoulos/CSM/Zuma

The Toronto Maple Leafs already had plenty on their plate this offseason and on top of some of their more obvious issues, like a contract extension for Maple Leafs star forward Mitch Marner, it seems like they will also have to juggle the demands of some of their top athletes. 

Now given the source of this news you may want to take it with a little pinch of salt, but Steve Simmons is reporting in the Toronto Sun that Toronto Maple Leafs star forward Auston Matthews does not want to play alongside teammate Kasperi Kapanen during the 2019 - 2020 National Hockey League regular season. This would of course limit the number of line combinations head coach Mike Babcock could put together and would almost certainly put Kapanen on the Maple Leafs third line as a result. 

From Simmons:

Last year, Auston Matthews wanted more ice-time and more power-play time and Zach Hyman playing on another line. This year, we’re told, he would rather not play with Kasperi Kapanen. So don’t be surprised if after the early season injuries are dealt with, Matthews ends up centring a line with William Nylander and the Russian rookie Ilya Mikheyev.

Early last season Kapanen and Matthews seemed to have pretty good chemistry while playing together, but perhaps there were some signs that the two men do not see eye to eye. A report from TSN's Mark Masters all the way back in October revealed Kapanen had made comments regarding that Matthews that could be interpreted as uncharitable.

"I think he was just scared of getting hit, probably," said Kapanen in regards to a screen from Matthews. "I don't think he's a guy who wants to get hit by too many pucks. But it was a great screen."

Now to be fair to Kapanen here it was reported that he made those comments with a smile on his face, so it certainly came off as a friendly chirp at the time and not a jab at his teammate. That being said though if Simmonds is indeed correct there may have been signs of issues between the two Maple Leafs forwards prior to this report. 

It is possible however that this will be a moot point for the Maple Leafs come next season as some already envision Kasperi Kapanen playing alongside the recently acquired Alex Kerfoot and Andreas Johnsson

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