Auston Matthews not currently willing to sign new contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a period of transition with management looking for a new general manager after relinquishing Kyle Dubas from the position last week. There has been speculation that this could affect the future of Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner staying with the franchise.

Matthews will be eligible to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season and could choose to test the market.

As of now, Matthews (AAV of $11,640,250) is in the top five salaries of NHL players that are led by Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon (AAV of $12.6 million), Edmonton's Connor McDavid (AAV of $12.5 million), New York's Artemi Panarin (AAV of $11,642,857), and San Jose's Erik Karlsson (AAV of $11.5 million).

The 25 year old is one the greatest goal scorers to ever put on the blue and white. Matthews already has five seasons of 40+ goals surpassing Leafs legend Darryl Sittler's previous mark of four. Meanwhile, he also surpassed Lanny McDonald and Rick Vaive's team records of three and two straight 40-goal campaigns, respectively.


Hockey writer Luke Fox doesn't think Matthews will sign a contract extension on July 1st because of the uncertainity with the organazation at the moment.



The Toronto Maple Leafs absolutely cannot allow all of the negotiating leverage to pass over to the Matthews camp by not negotiating an extension prior to July 1st.