On Aug. 23 a momentous occasion happened that will play a profound role in the future of the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise. That is when Auston Matthews signed a four-year extension to remain a Maple Leaf.
The signing was reported as pretty much a done deal before it actually happened and it appears many Maple Leafs’ fans took the whole thing for granted. “Hey, Matthews signed; great, what’s for supper?”
What If Matthews Had Chosen Not to Sign?
However, let’s assume for a minute that Matthews hadn’t signed. What if he decided to become an unrestricted free agent (UFA) at the end of this season? What effect would that have had on the franchise?
Last season the Maple Leafs finally broke a 19-year struggle to get past the first round of the playoffs. To make matters worse, the team had made the postseason for the previous six seasons. However, they had lost in the first round in each of those seasons. To add more pain to the situation, in the past five years they had taken each round to the final game before losing.
However, in 2023 they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games when John Tavares deflected a puck off of defenseman Darren Raddysh’s foot into the Lightning goal.
Related: Ex-Maple Leafs Goalie Michael Hutchinson: Where’s He Now?
Sadly, what was supposed to be a moment that would propel this franchise to bigger and better things all went south. The Maple Leafs lost, and lost badly, in five games to the Florida Panthers in Round 2.
The way the season ended left a sour taste in every Maple Leafs fan’s mouth. Losing the way they did after finally breaking the nearly two-decade jinx felt worse for some reason.
Then the Crucial Offseason Began
Exactly a week following the Maple Leafs’ 3-2 loss to the Panthers in Game 5 of the second round, general manager (GM) Kyle Dubas and president Brendan Shanahan had a very public falling out. It resulted in Shanahan not offering to renew Dubas’ contract.
Dubas, the “Young Genius” and architect of the Maple Leafs roster, was gone. It begged the question: “Was this the beginning of the end for this version of the Maple Leafs?” A day after Dubas was let go, fuel was added to the fire when Jason Spezza followed Dubas out the door after handing in his resignation.
These offseason moves could have easily been the end of this team as we knew it. We know that Dubas and the core players were close and that he was well-liked. What we didn’t know was what those players thought of the changes to management.
What If Matthews Didn’t Sign?
The litmus test was going to be Matthews. If he wasn’t happy and decided he wanted out, the team would be without their franchise player and the clear leader of this team. The choice for Treliving would then be to either trade him and hope to get the most he could for him or let Matthews play out his contract on a one-shot, last-chance move to win the Stanley Cup.
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Had Matthews made it known to the other players that he wanted out, the confidence they had in the team’s ability to win could have been shattered. Everyone might have wanted out, as well. The fall from on-ice success could potentially be fast and hard. The team could find itself in the midst of a massive rebuild.
Putting Matthews’ Time with the Maple Leafs Into Perspective
Thankfully Matthews did sign. While the contract was for just four years, it gives the Maple Leafs all of his prime years. He will be 31 before he plays a game under his next contract.
To put this in a larger perspective, the player who is the most talented goal scorer this franchise has ever had, a player that might be the best American-born player to ever play the game, and one of the best presently in the league, for the first time in his career had a choice to play for any team he desired. It matters that he picked the Maple Leafs.
If there was any question about whose team the Maple Leafs were before, there isn’t anymore. This is Matthews’ team. Treliving will now have the opportunity to keep building around him.
The message has also been sent to the other core players that Matthews believes in this team. The table is set. The foundation is once again in place. Now comes the job of building from there.
[Note: I want to thank long-time Maple Leafs’ fan Stan Smith for collaborating with me on this post. Stan’s Facebook profile can be found here.]