No other franchise has to deal with the BS we do when it comes to the coverage of our team. Today, Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic [published an article](https://theathletic.com/4625644/2023/06/21/auston-matthews-contract/?source=twitterhq) basically advocating for Matthews to fuck over the Leafs by taking short, max money deals. This a few days after Travis Yost and Adam Wylde said basically the same thing on Twitter.
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but this type of pro-player advocacy was non-existent in other markets where premier players where due for contract extensions. Mackinnon in Colorado, Pastrnak in Boston, McDavid in Edmonton, no beat writer or talking head was stepping up to say “actually, it’d be good and smart of the teams best player to buck the trend of signing max term deals in favour of wringing out every last dollar he could.”
Now look, I’m pro player. One of my biggest gripes with the salary cap is that it keeps player salary artificially low. However, I’m a fan of the Leafs team first, and it’s undoubtedly true that Matthews signing an 8 year deal (for what would still be a huge amount of money) would help the Leafs, giving us certainty in who our #1C will be over the next near decade. Why are so many in this market working as hard as possible to argue against the Leafs doing what every other franchise with a similar type of player has been able to do, which is sign a top level player to a long term deal?
Sure, a lot of it is click-baity nonsense, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have an impact on negotiations or perceived value. Being great in Toronto is different than being great in Columbus or Anaheim or wherever else. It’s also a unique style of clickbait that doesn’t even happen to other big market teams in other sports. Has any writer or pundit or analyst for the Patriots, Cowboys, Lakers, Celtics, Yankees, Dodgers, etc. done this kind of on behalf of the player analysis when it came time for them to re-up their stars? I highly doubt it, but feel free to prove me wrong with any evidence of any media member in those markets saying that the re-signing player should be trying to screw over his team as much as possible.
Look at the end of the day, the NHL is a hard cap world, and everywhere else, players are encouraged to take a little less to help their team get over the hump, and stars are expected to sign max term deals when it’s time for them to cash in. Everywhere in the NHL this is true, except in Toronto, where the media will go out of its way and try it’s damndest to see the worst possible outcome for the franchise manifest.
by elifreeze
14 Comments
What are you talking about?
The NHL is such a small fry compared to the NBA, MLB, NFL, hell even college sports. Do you follow other sports? The amount of coverage and articles like this are rampant.
Remember when Kypreos was advocating for Mitch Marner to be given an identical contract to the one Matthew’s had signed?
Pepperidge Farms remembers.
Let me ask you something.
Say youāre a contractor and your contract is ending, and your boss says āhey, we want to renew you for 3 years. But we had a bad sales period so we can only give you $50,000 a year. But, we have a new product launching next year that we know is going to give us more capital and a bigger budget, so we could probably give you closer to $85,000 after this year.ā
Would you take the $50k for 3 years to show your commitment to your boss? Or wait and collect the extra $70,000 over the other two years?
Because if the answer is well, heās going to make more than 10x that, the argument is dead to me because I donāt think anyone has a right to tell people how much money they should make.
And I say that as someone who wants his ass to sign for the full 8 years so I can sleep better at night. But itās not my money
I think it’s their hope this leads to breaking the cap. I’m pretty sure Adam wylde and probably alan walsh by extension, talk about how NBA players do short term huge money deals with options to stay but often turn them down to look for a new max and they want to see that in hockey. If teams and players just start doing it and it leads to tons of shitty teams paying 4 or 5 guys with the rest of the roster being league min ahlers, and especially all the top talent is on bad teams the league will have to change to fix it.
I think some of it might be trying to prepare the Toronto fan base. All the reports have said matthews isn’t doing long term so the reporters are just throwing out this is why no star should be doing max term deals.
Iām Matthews, I sign long term. Itās way too much of a risk to take short deals. He gets hurt, the wrists completely go, whatever, and his value plummets. He may leave a few bucks on the table by taking a max length deal but the security of that length is worth that sacrifice IMO.
Theyāre just calling it as we all see it. This group is a joke and is rightfully the laughing stock of the league. This team is built around greedy, selfish losers who havenāt ever once rose to any occasion, ever as athletes. I like seeing the media stick it to these guys who donāt deserve to play here.
Watching the core 4 fleece Dubas and continue to screw this team because of their greed is infuriating, especially in a league where most young guys willingly signed 8×8 off their entry levels. Thereās so many better players and yet weāre gonna be stuck paying Marner 12m+ and Matthews 14+.
If these guys want to show us they donāt hate losing, Matthews will sign a 11m x 8 and Marner Will sign a 9m x 8. Nylander at 8m x 8. Thatās the only way Iāll take this group seriously.
If Matthews asks for a short contract at more than 13.0 million, it truly shows that he gives 0 fucks about winning and only cares about the dollars.
Yes please. I want to see the players making as much as possible.
I really think we should abandon the concept of cheering for a team and instead follow individual players around when they sign their contracts. /s
Iām in the camp that a max term deal may not age well. Thereās a risk of not being able to retain Matthews after a short deal. However thereās also the risk that we pay a guy $13M for ~10th in goals ~20th in scoring type production. There are no sure bets.
It would be nice to see Matthews bet on himself again after this season. I personally think heās going to sign a long term deal and reset the market.
You know though that these people only have these jobs and write these articles because so many people read them right. It’s like getting mad at the paparazzi and then buying the trashy magazines there photos are in. Supply and demand. You read the article and therefore support the cause. Im not calling you out here as we all do it. Just noting they aren’t fully to blame. Anyone who constantly reads them burdens the responsibility as well
It’s a double-edged sword. The Leafs get the most attention of any NHL team, both positive and negative.
Toronto fans are constantly being gaslighted by other fanbases and their own media.
$15.34 over 3 years would be landscape altering like Dom says and would signify that the Leafs are willing to once again completely shift the paradigm in terms of what star players are capable of earning. the .34 is a nice touch.
itās sad because thereās no doubt that dubas would have been fully on board with awarding a marquee contract like this that changes the game for the better. with treliving, itās a complete unknown.
If you think the players are getting the idea to do this from the media, I donāt know what to tell you. Owners should be happy if a player will take a five year deal, even if itās at the top of the market. Outside of Crosby, McDavid, and Ovechkin, find an eight year deal that has aged well for the team. Iāll wait. I wonāt mention Tavares as an example of why longer contracts rarely work.
And people need to stop focusing on the raw dollars, and who makes more than a guy that signed three, four, or five years ago. The number that matters is the percentage of the cap, not the number of dollars.
Crosby didnāt ātake lessā to help the team. He took 14.5% of the cap at the time of signing. McDavid was about 15.6% iirc. The CBA allows 20% to go to one player. No one has come close, no matter how greedy you think the players are.
If Matthews takes another five years at 14 or so, itās not going to ruin anything. If the cap is 100M in four or five years, he can cash in again, and the team can certainly afford him if they deem him still worth it. Is there a certain security to signing for eight instead of four or five? Sure. But itās not like he will starve if there isnāt a next contract in five years for whatever reason.