The Toronto Maple Leafs are locking up one of the best players the historic hockey city has ever seen.
Auston Matthews is staying in ‘The Six,’ as the Maple Leafs announced they extended the generational talent for four more years.
The contract becomes the highest Average Annual Value (AAV) in the entire league. Matthews will make $13.25 million annually, pushing his career earnings over $100 million.
The contract will begin once his current one expires. The first year of the deal is the 2024-2025 season.
This deal makes him the highest-paid player in the NHL but really shows the lack of attention/marketing from the NHL. This deal has been handed out to role players in the NBA this past offseason.
Matthews burst onto the scene in the 2016-17 season, scoring 40 goals in his inaugural season and taking home the Calder Memorial Trophy, the NHL’s version of the Rookie of the Year.
In his seven years torching the top defensemen in the world, Matthews has finished the season with 40 or more goals five times. Matthews led the league in goals in the 2020-21 season but came in second in MVP voting to Connor McDavid.
He returned stronger the following season, lighting the lamp 61 times and leading the league in goals again. He topped MVP voting and earned the Hart Memorial Trophy after the 2021-22 season.
His 21-’22 season was one for the history books, becoming the 15th player in history to win both the Hart and the Lindsay awards in the same season. The Lindsay Award is the Most Outstanding Player voted by the National Hockey League Players Association. He was voted the MVP by the media and his peers after tallying 106 points and a league-leading 348 shots.
The 25-year-old has already built an incredible resume, scoring 30 or more goals in every season he has played, falling one short of 300 to start the 2023-24 season. The Leafs had a seemingly abrupt and harsh ending to their ‘22-’23 season, losing to the eight-seed Florida Panthers in the first round.
It has been 54 years since the 1966-’67 Maple Leafs hoisted the cup, tying the NHL record for the longest championship drought in history. But with a star-studded core and one of the best goal scorers the league has ever seen locked up for another five years, the Leafs are pushing to flood the drought.
