Analyst plays devil's advocate to Auston Matthews seeking a shorter deal
Much has been made of the upcoming Auston Matthews negotiations and the fact that, by most accounts, Matthews appears to be interested in pursuing a short-term deal in Toronto rather than a longer-term deal. It's better for Matthews in the long run, financially, to take a short term deal now and then sign an 8-year deal next time around, but as TSN's Mike Johnson mentioned on Thursday, the decision is not based solely on money. There are other factors that may be important to Matthews here as well.
Johnson believes that Matthews would like to maintain the level of flexibility that a shorter term deal would provide. Johnson also questioned why everyone is being so hard on Matthews for his preference of these shorter term deals when he's simply trying to manage his own career, keeping the best interest of him and his family in mind. Johnson's exchange with OverDrive host Bryan Hayes was a pretty intense one with Hayes arguing against Matthews signing short-term and Johnson arguing for Matthews pursuing the deal he wants rather than the deal the team wants.
BH: Because that's the nature of a hard salary cap. Everyone else does it.
MJ: That doesn't make it that he has to. You have to show me and let me know why I should keep coming back here! Why does it have to be 'I give you everything'?
BH: He gives them everything? They don't do anything for him, Johnny? They don't treat him like a king? They didn't just give him $11.6M? They're not going to make him the highest paid player in NHL history? That seems like a lot that the Leafs are doing.
MJ: There's a little thing called 'trying to win', right? So, there's also that. Them winning and losing is also on Auston Matthews. I'm not absolving him and he's more responsible for this than anyone. But they just fired the GM and he has to believe that for the next 8 years of his life, they're going to be able to be the kind of team he wants to play for.
Johnson also brought up the NBA and the type of flexibility that players have there. Johnson pointed out that the players have the power and leverage to be able to move around all the time. In the NHL it's far more rare, but in Johnson's mind, it's not a knock on Auston Matthews for wanting to exercise he leverage he has.
Honestly, I can see both sides of this. I really can. But, with the NHL being a business, the Leafs can't really afford to make a bad business decision here. It's really too bad that Kyle Dubas gave Auston Matthews all of the leverage here, because it would have been nice to have Matthews either finish his last deal as an RFA or finish his deal a year or 2 into his UFA eligibility and buy up a couple of his UFA years.
Ultimately, if Matthews is willing to put as much faith in the Leafs as they've put in him, he'd agree to either a short term deal with limited trade protection or just sign the long-term deal. I know that's not the way it works and that Matthews won't be doing himself any favours there, but in the interest of both the team and player being able to hold each other accountable, that's what makes the most sense.
| POLL | ||
JUIN 9 | 934 ANSWERS Analyst plays devil's advocate to Auston Matthews seeking a shorter deal Does Auston Matthews owe the Leafs anything here or is he right to use his leverage? | ||
| I'm fine with Matthews using his leverage | 231 | 24.7 % |
| He needs to be a team player here | 464 | 49.7 % |
| Don't care, just win. | 239 | 25.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
