Rumor: Maple Leafs “100% believed” an offer sheet was coming for Auston Matthews.

The Toronto Maple Leafs signed star forward Auston Matthews to a somewhat controversial contract in February of 2019, one that generated plenty of criticism from fans and pundits. It is fair to suggest that Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas faced some serious backlash after the deal was signed, this in spite of the fact that every fan in Toronto wanted to see Matthews signed to a new deal, but now we have some new information that appears to show that Matthews had considerably more leverage than the average restricted free agent. 

First, there were two major points of contention this this deal. The first was the fact that Matthews signed for only 5 years, a time frame that will see his contract end the moment he would be eligible for unrestricted free agent status, and the second was the sheer amount of money itself on that relatively short term deal. Matthews total contract value is $58.17 million which brings his average annual value to $11.634 million, not a crazy number but one that fans would have been much more willing to accept had this been an 8 year contract instead of a 5 year contract. So why did Matthews get such a good deal? Well no doubt there were a huge number of factors, but Sportsnet's National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman revealed information on a recent podcast that indicates the Arizona Coyotes may have played a significant factor in that deal.

According to Friedman's sources the Toronto Maple Leafs were completely convinced that if Matthews had been allowed to walk to free agency on July 1st that the Coyotes would have offered him the maximum allowable deal under the National Hockey League's collective bargaining agreement and would have done zone on a maximum term of 7 years as well.

"I will tell you this, the Toronto Maple Leafs 100% believed that if Auston Matthews got to July 1st last year, Arizona was gonna offer sheet him 7 years the max," said Friedman on the Spittin Chiclets podcast. "I have looked at it and people around the league have told me they believe that to be the case."

If Friedman was made aware of this and there was a sense around the league that it was coming you know that the agents representing Matthews were very likely aware of it as well. No doubt that gave them considerable bargaining power and no doubt that applied an incredible amount of pressure on Kyle Dubas and the Maple Leafs front office.