With the NHL All-Star game wrapping up last night in Sunrise, Florida, Elliotte Friedman confirmed the long held belief that the All-Star weekend will be hosted in Toronto next season. Further to that, NHL Network analyst Mike Rupp added that that weekend will serve as a farewell tour to Maple Leafs' stars Auston Matthews and William Nylander.
Both players have their contracts expiring after the 2023-24 season, and both players will become Unrestricted Free Agents. The Leafs will have plenty of cap space to re-sign them, but there's been a long held belief from those outside the Toronto market that these players do not want to play for the Leafs.
Another prominent and surprisingly accurate Twitter account, NHL Rumours Daily, confirmed Rupp's statement in regards to Matthews at least. However, they added an interesting caveat, that the stars' decision to stay or leave the Leafs will be again, based on playoff success.
Matthews and Nylander will be eligible for contract extensions on July 1st of this year. In addition to that, there's a large degree of uncertainty in the Leafs front office, with GM Kyle Dubas in the hot seat for playoff failures and finishing this season without an extension of his own.
Auston Matthews will likely be asking close to a maximum contract, be it with the Leafs or another team in free agency, while Nylander will also command at least $10M or more. If they were to leave the Maple Leafs, if they aren't able to trade them in the final season of their contracts, it would be the be the beginning of another dark era of Maple Leafs hockey.
